Turning the Corner of Your Life

by Her Motorcycle
(Southern California)

They say that women have more distinct age stages than men do. They are young girls, then teen girls, then young women and then women. (They only become old women to the rude folks). From the time they are just young to the time that they are very old, women may be expected to behave in certain ways and to have certain goals and demeanor's. Boys are not only allowed to have rebel moments, it is expected of them, but girls are still seriously expected to be good no matter what. Why do we as women allow this outdated theory to stand?

There is a lady who is not going to take it any more. She is a nice lady, almost to a fault and has spent her entire life doing what is expected of her. She works to please her parents, her spouse, and her children. She puts in extra hours at her job for free. Her boss uses her ideas frequently but she never gets any credit. Her husband goes out and buys big ticket items without mentioning it to her and then gripes if she does not discuss purchases with him. The children treat her like their personal ATM machine. Her friends foist stupid chores and tasks off onto her because they have never heard her say the word “no.” They no longer ask, it is just too much of a waste of their time, energy and breath.

For all of these years, this very nice lady has been carrying two burning flames inside of her. One is a secret that she has never shared with anyone in this part of her life and the other is the rage against what her life has now become. Her secret is a common one: she rides motorcycles, has since her senior year in high school. Funny, but it reconnects her with the mother that she had lost years before her first child was born. It was mom who taught her how to ride in the first place, mom who took her to take the test, who helped her buy her first bike, sold in the lean years just before she met the man she is married to now. He does not know that she rode motorcycles, has never asked anything about the girl that created the woman that he married. The rage is also common; it is rage at herself for letting herself become this shell of who she once was.

One day she will snap and she will turn the corner, leaving behind this Stepford wife version of who she really is inside. It might be yet another snippy comment from hubby or worse, from hubby’s mom. It might be the kids practically mugging her when she walks in the door or the boss taking her idea at a meeting or yet another bake sale, charity fund raiser or big time event that she will be expected to pull off without help at all and without any thanks at the end. She will storm off without a single word and when she comes back, it will be atop a big motorcycle. She will be happy because she is the woman that the girl inside of her always hoped she would be and she will dare anyone to say a single damned word about it.