As you know I met Jason in my mid 30's. Prior to that I had spent a majority of my life single and dating, never living with a boyfriend, nor was ever married so had to take care of myself in every aspect of my life. If furniture needed to be built, I ordered the furniture, went to the store, got a bottle of wine and a snack for energy, but I did it on my own.
Although I now have a partner in life I am still very independent about handling things on my own, probably to a fault and something I need to work on. Makaela sees me working hard at my job, fixing the TV if it's broken, building her dresser, hauling bags of groceries, climbing on counters to reach dishes, etc. I know that I've made comments over the years about not needing a man to do something, not in an insulting way, just acknowledging that something that I was doing may typically be a "man's job" but that I was all too capable of doing it on my own.
One day the two of us walked to Trader Joes to get groceries and I ending up purchasing more than I planned. We were walking out of the store, toting all the groceries, and I said "Boy, sure would be nice to have your dad with us to help us carry these bags today," and she replied "Jessica, we are strong women, we don't need a man to help us carry these groceries."
This was one of the proudest moments I've had with Makaela. More than anything, I hope that I can help provide her the knowledge, independence and strength to be a successful woman, in whatever she decides to do in life. I'm definitely not perfect but the fact that she's noticed I can handle a lot on my own is so fulfilling to me.
This picture is of Makaela and I skiing early 2019.
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