One of the best (and worst) things about this whole process is that I've been forced to become re-acquainted with the essential me. It's probably not a coincidence that this is all happening around the same time that I'm hitting a "milestone" birthday.
Most of my identity has been formed in response to expectations from others - as a daughter, as a sister, and later as a wife and mother. I've always been the good girl, the smart one, the hard working one, the one who doesn't cause trouble, who turns herself inside out as a student, an employee, a wife, a mother. But underneath it all, I sense a wild child who is just begging to be let loose, to shake off that good Irish Catholic girl the world sees.
So I'm thinking about getting a tattoo. This is completely out of character for me. Just a small one, mind you, and in a place that would not be readily visible to the world. But I would know it's there. For various reasons, I can't completely reinvent who and what I am -- if nothing else, I still have to think of my kids ("Won't someone PLEASE think of the children!"). But I can take some baby steps toward being more adventurous, and I think I'll start with this.