#1 To The Moon and Back
One Small Step for a Human, One Giant Leap for Unpretending Spontaneous
In five days I travel to North America. The United States. The Mainland.
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Never in my life have I dreamt I would set foot in America, yet in several sleeps time, I embark upon a 28 day journey that I’m calling To the Moon and Back. The reference is from the moon landing, 1969, One small step for a human, one giant leap for Unpretending Spontaneous.
In this newsletter I’ll take you with me as I discover the sights and sounds of the people and places, the differences in the language and culture, and all sorts of weird and wonderful experiences.
As an Aussie kid in the 80’s, I grew up reading American pioneering novels and watching American movies and sitcoms. A child within me imagines a Laura Ingall’s type of America. The adult in me likes to imagine stereotypical America with extravagant houses set well back from the street, famous people hanging out together in Hollywood and Cowboys wearing hats and boots in Texas.
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I’m headed to the Midwest. It’s where my person, my partner, my Multimes lives. She is another multiple with DID, I met them on an online forum two years ago and we became firm friends. We met face to face in Hawaii last October and have been planning this trip ever since. Yeah I know, Hawaii is technically America but it is far far away from the mainland.
I come from generations of women who married out of duty, and stayed in unhappy families because that’s how it was. Men did what they wanted and women did as they were told. Not anymore, I’m teaching these little kids that mums can live too. Mums can have a life and dreams and they don’t have to work themselves into the grave.
My mother was 58 years old when she discovered she was allowed to live her own life, her mother was in her 70’s. And I can guarantee the women before them died while working for their families, never having autonomy. That stops now.
My paternal grandmother. Photo courtesy of Unpretending Spontaneous.
I’m not a feminist, not that there’s anything wrong with feminism. I just want to live. I want to be allowed to live and I want to break free from my mothers footsteps. I want to write my own path, and not repeat the path of my foremothers. I want to be free.
After full time parenting for almost 25 years, it’s time to learn to be someone other than a mum. The little kids? Well for 28 days they are staying with their father who has been learning how to co-parent since we separated. With technology, Zoom, and managing time zones, I’ll still be in contact with the little darlings everyday.
So, right now I’m in full swing of wondering what on earth I’ll be packing, definitely Vegemite. Someone needs to teach Americans the real way to eat this iconic Aussie spread.
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Until next time, this has been Unpretending Spontaneous.