LeoLin Bowen

You are about to embark on a journey that you will be talking about and remembering for the rest of your life, so spend these next year’s enjoying it.

Inevitably, it happens. A well-meaning (or maybe not so well-meaning) white person will utter the phrase, “Well, I just don’t see color.”

“I just love your squishy belly!” Then, as only children can do, he gave it a nickname: belly jelly. So I'm learning to love my belly jelly.

What is different now is that I know who I am and what I want. I’m not afraid to be alone and living single. I value my time and my health.

My son had just lost another tooth. When he looked up at me with his big, brown eyes and asked, “Mommy is the tooth fairy real?”

I am not the only one who is running on this hamster wheel of debt. In 2017 Americans had a revolving debt of $1,022 billion. So, dear debt, it's over!

Wonderful son of mine, I am going to let you in on a little secret. Your mother is a liar. In fact, people lie all of the time.

I didn’t see similarities between my mother and I until years later, after I became a mother. The constant conflict hid how my mother and I are alike.

I call it the look. The slight tilt of the head confused look that people give me when they find out that I am the “weekend” parent.

“This is what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.” My home is a cooperative house on the South Side of Chicago.