This is a 36 year-old white female: right-hand dominant with past medical history of anxiety, cervical pain/back pain/headaches, bilateral wrist fractures, cardiac arrhythmias, benign cyst removed from her face, wisdom tooth extraction, who presents on this day for re-evaluation.
This is a tall drink of sweet tea who can also be salty: listens to the same song on repeat to hear a particular six-second chord series, feels unaccountably passionate about the size of spoons and excitedly pointing out obvious moons, whose proudest moment is presenting to her departing mate a sincere thank-you note for a well-shared life.
This is a nearly middle-aged educator, operating equally on hope and doubt: feelings as infuriatingly inarticulable as one might expect from someone who, as a girl, wouldn’t let her parents return a defective Teddy Ruxpin because he was already loved, and after all: even mangled toys need good homes.
This is an easily embarrassed piece of work: routinely trips over the same feet she’s had since birth, owes any good thing in life to the love of others, who presents on this day a fierce challenge to the stubborn darkness that so easily overwhelms. She is more stubborn still.