Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

by Angela Brown

They were like neat little rectangular reminders of the many sunrises and sunsets that still lingered on my horizon line, all the time I still had stretched before me to daydream and procrastinate and list out my life instead of actually living it.

You see, there’s a great secret to motherhood: no matter who you are or who you used to be or who you’d once dreamed you’d become, you were supposed to pretend that your children were enough, that you weren’t multifaceted, and that your dreams weren’t three-dimensional. You weren’t supposed to admit that you had any dreams reserved exclusively for yourself at all.

that we aren’t born with one life, but with two. The life we live before we understand loss, and the one we finally live once we realize that, despite our many efforts, our life will ultimately end.

That happens as you age. Your friendships become public, all your exchanges taking place in crowded restaurants and coffee shops while a million people walk past.

That’s another thing that happens with age. Your career just becomes a part of you, as much a piece of your identity as your name.

There is no such thing as a perfect life. There are only perfect moments.

Stop waiting. There is no perfect time. No perfect circumstance. The time will pass anyway. Don’t put your dream off anymore.