The Writer's Voice
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My Journey
by
Jenn Van Massenhoven
I started as two parts, became one.
What a trip!! Flying down those slides, smashing into myself.
A weird way to begin, if you ask me.
Two parts, one in Mummy, one in Daddy.
Am I a boy or a girl? I'll find out soon.
I grow, I float. I wiggle and turn.
Look! Fingers. Wiggle them a bit...WOW!!!
Toes, they kind of look like fingers, not as long. They move the same way.
I hear thump-thump thump-thump. Only faster, it's strange this noise. I
wonder where it's coming from? Oh, there are two sounds! The same, one
slow, one faster. Both are thump-thump thump-thump.
Fluids moving through me. I wonder why.
There's so much I don't know!!
I hear Mummy's voice.
It's soothing.
Another voice is always there too.
Is it Daddy's? It's different from Mummy's, lower, slower. It says "Hi Baby!
Are you ok in there?"
Actually, it's getting crowded in here.
I push and I get pushed back!
I'll put my elbow right here... there, that's much better!
"Ouch!" Mummy says. Why?
The Daddy voice says, "Are you a boy or a girl? It doesn't matter."
I don't know.
What's a boy? What's a girl?
Hey!!!
Why am I being squeezed?
There it is again!!
I don't like this...I'm being pushed around. I don't like this at all!!!!
Mmmmph mmph Help!!
Mummy!!!
What's that bright thing? Is that a face? Whose face is it?
"Congratulations! A healthy baby boy!"
I'm a boy? Right on!
Today is the first day of school ever.
I don't think I want to be here.
Who's that lady I ask.
"Your teacher," Mummy says, "she'll be here with you when you're in
school. She'll help you learn things. You listen to her, and be the good boy
I know you are."
Ok Mummy I say.
And I try not to cry.
I watch her leave, then turn to the kids staring at me.
I finally made it!!!
I'm graduating today! I did it!!
Now I start my life.
What am I going to do?
I know I want to help people, but where?
Do I want to stay close to my family?
Or go see the world?
Maybe I'll travel for a bit, then come home.
That's a good plan.
"Congratulations, son. You did it! Your mother and I are very proud!"
Thanks Dad.
I met a girl today.
No, I met a WOMAN.
She's beautiful, funny and sweet.
The one I've been looking for all my life.
I love her already.
Does she, will she, feel the same?
Lord, please let it be so!
I'll woo her, court her. Treat her as special as she is.
Finally, today's the day!
"Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to
hold, through sickness and health, through good times and bad?"
I do!
I remember when I asked her to marry me. She yelled "Yes!!" at me so
many times I lost count. She threw her arms around me laughing and
crying at the same time.
We start as two. Become one.
A wild ride.
I end it here with my family around me.
Four generations I see.
Noisy!
I smile at them, happy to see them run and hug me.
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