Hey everyone, I’ve been MIA for awhile, ya know just hiding in my burrow until spring. March has come in like a cranky toddler, am I right? I know that old saying, March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb...and maybe that’s true. But why does it have to be a cold lion? Couldn’t it be a lion that’s warmly temperamental?

Anyways, March may be a crazy month for weather, but it’s also my birthday month. That’s a bit of foreshadowing...? Y’all I’m turning 39 at the end of the month. This is my last year of my 30’s and I can’t help but reflect on the years and decades that have flown by. Sometimes, I really wonder how I managed to get here. 

It might be a surprise to you, but there was a time in my teenage years when quite a few people thought that I wouldn’t see 21. I was a troubled kid. I’ve talked about it in another post, you can find that here. Quite frankly, even I wasn’t sure I’d make it out of high school. I was suspended a few times for various reasons. Once, I was suspended because I refused to tell the names of the kids that were out back smoking. The administrators caught me leaving the spot, I yelled to everyone else still back there to run. When questioned, and even offered a pass if I gave them their names, I refused and was suspended.

Then there was the time at a brand new school, on the very first day of school...before classes even started... I was caught smoking, again. They took me to the office where I waited for my parents to be called and to be handed my sentence. Unfortunately, no one realized that it was a bad idea to leave me in a room unattended. I made a run for it, straight out the front door. I ran out of that school building faster than you can say "run, Forest, RUN". No one in that office expected me to do that, but there I was, running away, and there was everyone else hollering after me to come back.  Where did I go? I had the genius idea (this is sarcasm...leaving school grounds was a terrible idea) to run all the way up the road and into the woods. I stayed in those woods like a fugitive all day. Friends, this was back in ’96... there were no cell phones. I didn’t even have a watch to tell time... I basically just sat there in the woods and thought about my predicament. Just a troubled girl, her packed lunch, and her thoughts. These woods happened to be next to a school for “bad kids” and that irony was not lost on me

I know you’re wondering what my plan was to get out of the woods. Somehow I managed to guess the time of day by the position of the sun... I kid you not. I straight up turned into Miss Wilderness Survivalist. I guess Girl Scouts, and all of those Macgyver episodes I watched paid off...I actually learned something. So, when I thought it was about the time for the buses to be at the school, ya know solely based on the suns position, I ran myself back over, and I was actually right! The buses were there, I got on...I went home... and all hell broke loose.

Yes, I knew I’d be in trouble (that’s an understatement). Everyone had been out looking for me, the cops were looking, my family, the administrators. I remember my brother saying to me when I walked into the house “where the hell have you been? You’re in a lot of trouble”. And I was in a lot of trouble, I was nearly expelled. Somehow, I escaped being expelled and was suspended instead, for a week..before I had ever even stepped foot in a classroom that year. But, the track coach wanted me to sign up to run track...he saw me run out of the school like a bat out of hell, and thought I would be perfect for the track team, so there’s that. I didn’t do it though, track wasn’t my thing. Maybe that’s why I hate running now... running is for running from something, like expulsion and bad ideas.

So, there I was...another suspension. One of quite a few. But what, does this have to do with anything, right? Well, I spent a lot of my teenage years being expressive. Y'all that’s the PC word for being dumb. Drugs, alcohol, and a whole lot of fierce crazy, that was high school for me. That’s my March. I came into adulthood like a lion...but I’m not necessarily going out like a lamb.

Even at 39 years old, I’m still quite fierce, I am unabashedly me. Every bit of everyday of every year has formed who I am now, and, while I may not be leaving a lamb anytime soon, the lion has a better temperament and appetite now...usually. March might be a temperamental month, but those born in it are some amazing and fierce people (I’m not biased ;) ). 39 is set to be an amazing lion year, no lamb yet.

-xo