The Digitalmehmet Content Ecosystem

It horrifies me now.

Two small children. Alone. Climbing through a tire bin. To cross a four-lane road.

But that’s not how it felt at the time.

I was seven. My sister was in kindergarten.

Every morning we walked to school. Rain. Snow. Cold.

My mother never took us. At the time, that felt normal. It never occurred to me that someone should.

I felt like a big girl.

Responsible.

Adventurous, even.

I didn’t know to be afraid.

I just knew I was the one who got us across.

That was the first role I was given.

Decades later, I started to understand just how many of my identities had begun that same way — as something someone else needed me to be.

Read Big Girl — a story about the roles we’re given, the identities we build, and what happens when we finally get to choose for ourselves.

Read Big Girl free on Substack →