Summary

In “It’s Still There”, the author reflects on the year after her divorce, before the pandemic, when she was actively trying to say yes to new experiences and cultivate an independent sense of self. While she was not looking to start a new relationship, she felt that in some ways the timing “could not have been better” (185). When they drove to North Carolina together, Smith swam in the ocean and allowed herself to feel something beyond the stress of politics and worrying about her children. In “This is Where I Completely Freaked Out”, the author tells her reader that she panicked when her ex-husband announced that he was moving out of state. She was unsure if he planned to take the children, cede his custody rights, or what he had said to Violet...