I am. I'm Mommy A. As in Andrea, a registered respiratory therapist well-versed in adult crirical care and emergency respiratory therapy. I love my job, but at some point I decided I wanted more of a challenge and started ticking off the requirements necessary to get my butt into medical school. To me, medicine is the beautiful combination of art and science thrown together, and it is all I can see myself doing.
Well, that is aside from raising my sons...
And being a wife...
I am a self-proclaimed science geek. My majors? (Yes the plural is intentional!) Dual degrees in Molecular biology and Biomechanics, with a minor in Women's Studies...Because I am a woman, and have the inherent belief that the fact that I have a uterus should not bar me from anything in this life. And because I find the construction of DNA to be the picture of organized beauty and poetry in life.
I can be abrasive and obnoxious. I over-dramatize a lot. I tend to type/ speak in incomplete sentences at times, and over-analyze virtually anything. Go ahead--try to tell me a joke, and I bet I won't get it because I will try to extrapolate from it some sort of complex meaning. My husband, should you ask, would say, "Andrea is so smart, she's stupid." He may or may not be correct.
I love every role I have in my life. I love being a Mommy. For a period of time, I did that and only that. After years of feeling guilty about my feelings of wanting something more, I realized that to be the most for my children, I needed to find other enrichment in my life. As a result, they now have a mom who is fulfilled and satisfied, though she is often so busy that she is brought to the cusp of insanity.
My son has probably eaten too many kids' meals in his time. And so long as he is happy and healthy, I don't buy into the gluten-free, extra-crunchy, smells-like-dirt-or-it-is-going-to-ruin-him kind of mess. If that is important to you, I say go with it. I am not into criticizing other mothers. I don't get wrapped up in who has the best stroller on the playground. I think we are all simply doing the best we can, so if I don't tell you I think staying home with the kids shows a lack of ambition, you don't tell me I am neglecting mine for choosing to work out of the home. WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER. And our kids may end up as classmates one day, and you may find yourself rubbing elbows with me as we chaperone field trips to some random museum.
I love every kind of music there is. Some of it isn't child friendly. The first four-letter-word my child heard was from one of my CDs in the car. Then I realized little ears were indeed listening, and I had to start censoring my selection in front of him. So when he isn't listening, I get it all out of my system.
When I find the time, I read. But...I am a literary snob. If it can be found in the best-seller section, or is distributed en masse to grocery-store chains, I porbably won't like it. If it produces some sort of intelligent thought, I am all eyes. The only exception to this is during pool-season, when I need something that is a quick read and entertains me, but not to the point that I cannot focus on my surroundings at the same time.
I'm not sure if there is anything else I can sum up here. Other than to say that you may not like me, but there are people in this world who love me, and I love myself. That's all that matters. And the fact that I am one of the people in this world who knows how to breathe for you when you cannot for yourself means that you must tolerate me.
