The Checklist

When I was young, I was given a checklist

Not on paper, nothing so formal

But comment by comment

A checklist was made.

I began to play Mom

I began to play Wife

I stopped playing astronaut

And being an engineer seemed silly.

Still, that checklist grew.

Heels and dresses,

Make up and hair,

Wait till marriage (ha!),

Be a wife,

Be a Mom,

Give all of yourself,

Every last drop.

Careers can come - my kids will grow up right?

I've checked off most of that checklist.

Now I stand in front of a void of possibilities.

My husband beside me, encouraging me to jump.

To take the leaps I never thought to take.

Because that checklist? Handed down through generations,

was written

by the Patriarchal Society of Assholes.

And I realize now, that the void has been waiting, and so have I.