"I felt the tug on my sleeve and looked down to find him standing motionless. His mouth was moving but I couldn’t make out his words. His quiet body in the noisy room caught me off guard. I bent down to find his voice."
"Tears-pouring-down-my-face, couldn't-talk-couldn't-breathe kind of laughing. Screaming laughing. So hard that I was sobbing because I couldn't get it together."
"I don’t know who this lady is... she waved at him and he made his way up to her. I thought their interaction would be the same as last time but I was wrong. "
"My daughter would question me as to why I wasn’t wearing a two-piece bathing suit. I would tell her 'Mommy just doesn’t feel comfortable in it,' and when she would push for me to explain what I meant I would just deflect the conversation and bring up a new topic."
"Wearing this style bottom is like encasing half a sausage and then just giving up, letting the other half flop around into whatever shape it feels like depending on which direction the wind is blowing and how much gluten I had for dinner last night."
"I felt embarrassed. Embarrassed that after a year and a half of four to five days a week at the gym, I now look like this, ashamed at how I've 'let myself go' since the pandemic started."
"I wanted to stand in front of the mirror and suck it in at different angles... I wanted to lift up my boobs and try to see my waist... I wanted to say “nope not wearing this” as I tried to stretch out the waistband."
