I'm 53, a kindergarten teacher and the mother of two grown children (25 and 29).  I divorced 3 years ago...he left for another woman, but the marriage was good for most of 28 years. I'm also an aspiring author having written a memoir of the year I spent in Beijing following my divorce, an adventure of travel and self discovery.

How did you get to where you are now?

Chance!  Recently I was in San Antonio where my son had attended college 8 years ago.  Then I was the mother of an intact nuclear family. A "soccer mom" type who taught school, baked cupcakes, brought hot chocolate to the baseball team's early spring practices, married to a lawyer, etc.  Now I was there with my new man who was there on a short broadcasting gig. 

As I wandered alone (the man was working) past familiar places on the Riverwalk and remembered the hotels my ex and I had stayed at, restaurants where we had eaten, even the store where I bought the shoes I wore to my son's graduation, I couldn't help but shake my head at the strange and sometimes wonderful turns my life has taken.  Sure there were teary moments, even a slightly panicked phone call to my daughter "I'm standing in front of the Hooters in SA watching the boats.  Do you remember being here?"

When I get the "how are you really?" from caring friends in the grocery store, people I haven't seen in years, I answer "I'm as happy as I've ever been, just not in the ways I expected"

 

How do you see yourself differently now than you did 10 years ago?

I am more open to the possibilities of life, trust myself more to handle whatever comes along and trust the predicatabilty and stability of the world a little less.  Happily ever after comes in a different package than I thought ten years ago, but I still believe in happy.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

A published author and the veteran of many more adventures. One of my greatest dreams is to reach out to other women in times of personal transition - from married to divorced and on to content singlehood or remarriage, from mother to empty nester. Women have always bondedand learned by sharing their stories, around the well, river, at the laundromat, over the back fence and now, mysteriously through cyber-space. I want to pass on what I have so gratefully recieved.