Nemesia turned 16 last week. It’s a turning point. A defining age.
At sixteen, I had sex for the first time. Strangely, my child is now that same age.
I remember that time of my life as being the most vivid. The most intense. And, perhaps, the most honest.
With the weight and wisdom of age, I feel that I’ve become duller. That my world is duller.
At sixteen, I remember feeling the full weight of the world and all of humanity’s shortcomings bearing down on me. But, I also remember joy and pleasure more fully. Some things were still so new. I was still new. I was learning so much—about the world, relationships, love, romance, pain, and heartache.
As a parent, I can look back and remember that time. And I can look at my child—someone I once shared my body with, someone I have known all their life and witnessed nearly every day since—and wonder how they’re experiencing it. And as much as I want to help and guide them through this time, to be there for them, I know that they are coming into their own. And, that because of that our relationship is changing.
I am so curious to watch Nemesia’s life unfold. To get to know them more.
Mothers of daughters are daughters of mothers and have remained so, in circles joined to circles, since time began. They are bound by a shared destiny.
—Signe Hammer
Monarose 