We all know the pitch, eat 7-10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, eat whole grains, wear your SPF, drink your water, don't smoke, reduce your sodium, lose weight, and worry about the ratio of your omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids. All of this with the promise of living longer. But, if there was a fountain of youth and all you would need do is drink from it to live forever, would you want to? You would get to see things that other people only dream of, sure. But what are the rules? Would you be happy? Would you be fulfilled? Would you feel alone? We search for how to live longer all the time, but what if we just learned to live with more impact, work passionately, and love intensely here and now? [By the way, all of that, also happens to make you live longer.] 1. Watch Less TV: Increased isolation, sedentary behavior, and increased mindless snacking make too much TV time a real health hazard. Studies have shown that it may even decrease your life span. Simply reducing your TV time will give you some of your life back. There was a time in my life that I believed anything that could happen would. Being fully naked running through the backyard was as comfortable as wearing a full bodied body shaper covered by a long sleeved parka. Then something changed. I became body aware. I had started my period and gotten breasts long before my peers. It made me want to hide and wait it out until everyone else caught up. Tied down with two sports bras and baggy shirts I learned to hide my body at age 10. Sports, which I once placed value in, were nightmares now. Boys came out of the wood works. I realized then that my worth might be wrapped up in what I looked like forever. And that, perhaps, what I said and felt might not ever matter to the boy sitting across from me. I discovered fashion magazines shortly after this, actually, I remember where and when I first read one. YM with my friend Alexis in my front yard in the seventh grade. I was a goner. Fashion, makeup, hair, quizzes on boys… it was like they knew exactly what I cared about. What I didn't know then was that I was also being brainwashed. All the power that my mom had given me as a kid was slowly going to be replaced with photos that were so airbrushed even their souls were photoshopped out. When my parents named me I don't think they realize how deeply my name would impact my future. How every introduction for the rest of my life would open up the most personal part of me. That almost immediately a stranger would know that I wasn't born into my family. That my mom didn't have stories of my birth. That my dad didn't have stories of midnight food craving runs. That I was carried by a woman I will never know. That I don't know where my small nose comes from. That I am from a world far away. That I am ashamed that I don't speak Spanish. That it was meant to be. That the stars would have to align in an unimaginable way for me to find my soulmates. That I don't want to meet my birthparents. That my whole life I’d have to teach adults what being adopted meant. That I don't know who gave me my paternal side. That I would sometimes feel separate. That I looked different than the faces I grew up with. That I was only seconds old when she gave me up, and only days old when they found me. That sometimes I feel like an alien. That my parents couldn't have be anyone else. And they didn't know that my name would save me.
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