TELL ME ABOUT IT

In a move that was completely out of character for me, I took a trip to Europe alone in spite of my incredibly overprotective family’s attempts to dissuade and interfere.

It is not hyperbole to say that the trip changed my life. While it was daunting, it forced me to realize that I could rely on myself, and that scary doesn’t always mean bad. I spent a week with a rental car and a GPS, and I came home with a new lease on life.

Don’t ask permission. Don’t phrase it in such a way that leaves worried family members room to believe their guilt will change your mind. Make a positive, straightforward, confident statement about your plans. Then, release your mind and heart.

Allow yourself this gift, and feel no guilt about accepting it. Two trips later, my family tends toward awe when I talk about the things I saw and did all by myself. It created in them a new kind of respect, but more than that, it created in me a new kind of selfrespect.

I was parting company with a prickly teacher at a local riding school. This was as it should be, but she behaved unfairly toward me in the end, and I wanted to tell her off. Pop told me not to, and gave me the best reason why.

“You meet people coming and going in this life. Be careful how you leave them.”

Once in a while I give myself a pat on the back for being smart enough to ask him what to do.