Hello. I am a 42-year-old decently educated, reasonably fit, somewhat eccentric, mother of two kiddos in second grade who co-parents and lives in a rural college town. I am also an Army veteran, former NSA linguist, seminary graduate (long story), lover of languages, mother of two angel babies, former crazy cat lady, hopeful future crazy cat lady (once the kids have grown), and active member of my community.
I work as a full-time researcher and part-time chauffeur and playdate scheduler. I cook meals (thanks Hello Fresh), do laundry (that mostly gets put away), hang out with my friends, piddle around with painting, collect plants, prefer Facebook to Snapchat, enjoy reruns of Schitt's Creek and Sex in the City, daydream about being a 20th-century interwar detective like Hercule Poirot, and have a loving significant other whom I adore more and more each day.
From a generational perspective, I was born in in 1981, which makes me a Xennial. I have one foot firmly planted in analog and one in digital - not quite a Generation X and not quite a Millennial. I probably think more like Generation X since I grew up in a very rural part of the country (my graduating class consisted of 62 people, and I lived in a village) where we did not have the internet until I was in college. My teenage years were mostly spent telling my mom that I was sleeping over at a friend's house when I was really with a few dozen other underage kids in the woods gathered around a keg of skunked beer and listening to Sublime and Pearl Jam.
Simply put, I am the stereotypical middle-aged, soccer mom next door. I do mom stuff and, when time permits, I take pleasure in doing Xennial things.
Oh, and I am also a survivor of a narcissist and his flying monkeys, the victim of physical, mental, and emotional abuse, the recipient of a smear campaign, and a breaker of a trauma bond.
I am Ekho – and this is my story.
