Sunday, March 14, 2010

Now and Then

Last night I went dancing for the first time in three years. It was so much fun, but definitely won’t become part of my weekly routine.

It’s never been my scene, and I really don’t fit in there now that I’m a new mom. When my friend and I first got to the bar there were two glasses on the dance floor. I picked them up and put them on the ledge.

Instead of cheering for the girl who climbed on the table to dance, I was worried that she would snap a heel and fall on her face. The bouncer pulled her down before she killed herself.

My sense of humour doesn’t translate well on the dance floor, either. I didn’t get any laughs when I cast a line to reel people in. I thought it was hilarious!

Don’t even ask what I was wearing.

I’m cool with the fact that I’m not invited to the Swanky Club for being so bar-awesome. It’s not me, but every once in a while I like to have that kind of fun.

If I wasn’t cool with that, I could work hard to fit in. I could buy bar clothes and learn how to put on make-up. I could practice dancing in my spare time. I could look up some lyrics online. I might never become the swankiest club hopper, but after a while I would be a clubber.

That’s what makes it difficult to know who people are; who they really are.

Am I the person that I am every day, or who I am today? Was I a different girl when I was sick, because I was sick for so long that I became that person; or am I the healthy woman, because it’s basically the person I started out as?

Maybe I’m a woman who used to be sick, because cardiomyopathy changed me just enough to be considered a major life event. I sing in the shower again now that I’m healthy. Is that the difference between happy and sad Jenn?

Am I who I’m trying to be, who I want to be, or who I am right now? Am I my past? My feelings? My thoughts?

I wasn’t myself for seven years. That’s a long time to be lost. I started a few new jobs, made friends, wrote a book, bought a house, got healthy and had a baby. If I wasn’t me that whole time, who was I?

Does that decade of my life count as a night-at-the-bar-type experience?

4 comments:

  1. Hey Char, I think that's a valid point - we do decide who we are to some degree, but what about the stuff we just love to do? Like I just love to write.

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  2. I think we are who we have been, are now, and will be. We change. We become.

    Helen
    Straight From Hel

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  3. Helen, I think so too. But sometimes if I think about it too much, I wonder if we ever really are if we're always becoming. Makes my teeth ache ;)

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