“It’s not a tragedy to spend a lifetime avoiding roller coasters. But it is troubling that, when I look back on my life, my best decisions are those in which I was willing to countenance risk: studying literature instead of medicine, telling the man who would become my husband that I loved him, having a child when I was expected to focus on my career. Now I wonder: What else have I missed out on because I’ve mistaken someone else’s fear for my own good sense?

Most of all, I no longer want to be the scared mother in my son’s story.”

The Walrus, September 2022