Where Dreams Meet Expectation
As a mentor to young women and a creative writer, I have always been curious about women and the lives they imagine for themselves. Perhaps it is because I spend so much time listening. Young women talk about school, work, marriage, family and the futures they hope to build. Sometimes they speak with certainty, as though the road ahead has already been mapped. Other times, there is hesitation, a pause before an answer, a change of subject, a dream mentioned quietly and then tucked away. I have always wondered about those dreams. What does a girl imagine her life will become before the world begins telling her what it should become? I was thinking about this one night as I sat working on a certain paper. My laptop was open in front of me, papers were scattered across the table and yes I was supposed to be concentrating on the words on the screen. But my mind had begun to travel somewhere else. To the women I had met. To the young women I had mentored. To the stories I had heard. A...