Staatenlos

Who am I? I remember writing an impromptu essay in grammar school and although I can’t remember exactly what I wrote, I’m sure it was very ordinary in some respects and quite fanciful in others. I probably first identified my parents and the usual facts as I knew them which must have been a very short paragraph.

The rest I imagine was an elaborate concoction of self and parental expectations that had no real life basis. There were no limits or boundaries to what I thought I could achieve or imagined I could accomplish. My parents always told me that I could achieve anything I set my mind to and I  believed them. There was no need to zero in on any particular ambition as I would do & be everything. A nun, a mother, a ballerina, an artist, a  teacher of the deaf and blind just to  name a few aspirations. I’d travel around the world and back again.

Little did I know…