Who Am I?

Who am I? It’s a question I ask myself frequently and the answer has changed many times in the 37 years I’ve been on this planet. The answer is many-layered, with some layers being decidedly harder to define than others. Some of the definitions are easy; I’m a mother, I have a lovely daughter Morgan who will be 14 in one month. I’m an animal lover, especially dogs, and most especially basset hounds of which I currently have two, Copper (age 11) and Elphaba (age 2). I’m a Systems Engineer, designing medical devices and safety controls for medication distribution. (This is what I do for a living, but honestly it has less to do with who I am than almost anything else.) I’m a Thespian, loving all aspects of the theatre from technical to stage acting. I’m a sibling, one brother, and one sister, both younger than me. I’m an aunt, one nephew (age 13) and one niece (age 11). I’m also a daughter, granddaughter, niece, and cousin (I have hundreds of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cousins). I’m an ex-wife, several times over actually.

Most of those things are who I am to other people. Definitely aspects of me, but really only a small fraction of me as a whole. The me that informs my everyday actions is a much more complex, tumultuous being. She’s an armchair anthropologist, struggling to understand the human race, where they have been and where they‘re going. She’s a dreamer, who can envision a planet where the people have put aside their petty differences to live in harmony. She’s an optimist, who despite seeing the massive failings of our race and their unwillingness to recognize those failings, still believes there is hope that the human race can live up to the vast potential they have barely begun to tap. She’s a hopeless romantic. This perhaps has been one of my biggest downfalls, and yet it's the aspect I’m least likely to relinquish. She’s an activist who believes in putting your time and money into what you believe in. She's a lover of science fiction, fantasy, and mystery.

More than anything, she’s constantly conflicted.

This intro doesn’t really give true insight into who I really am, but I’m hoping that if you keep reading my blogs, a better sense of understanding will be revealed, quite possibly to me as much as to any of you.