Day 1476: I haven’t been the same since …

When people get into therapy, they often say, “I haven’t been the same since …” and they name some life-changing event.

Personally, I haven’t been the same since …

• my first heart surgery at age 10,
• I got my first cat,
• I got my first car,
• I rode a bicycle for the first time,
• my heart valve replacement surgery last September,
• my son was born,
• my son went away to school in Scotland,
• my son returned home for Christmas,
• my son went back to school yesterday,
• I took my first disco dance lesson,
• I met my husband,
• my divorce,
• my cardiac pacemaker was recalled in 1975,
• my cardiac pacemaker/defibrillator was recalled two weeks after my valve replacement surgery in September,
• President John F. Kennedy was killed,
• Bobby Kennedy was killed,
• Martin Luther King was killed,
• John Lennon was killed,
• I went away to college,
• I was attacked by a rapist outside my apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
• I first got into therapy,
• I went to film school,
• I became a therapist,
• Barack Obama was elected President of the United States,
• Donald Trump was elected President of the United States,
• I met my boyfriend Michael,
• I first saw Gene Kelly dance,
• I heard my first pun,
• I made my first pun,
• I attended Berklee School of Music for a summer program when I was in high school,
• I worked on the recruitment tape for Berklee College of Music in the 1990s,
• I did stand-up comedy at an Open Mic,
• my son performed stand-up comedy at an Open Mic,
• I had my first cup of cocoa with marshmallows,
• my father died,
• my mother-in-law died,
• my mother died,
• my father-in-law died on Friday,
• I encountered Mexican food for the first time,
• I had my first black raspberry ice cream cone,
• I saw my first palm tree,
• I started blogging,
• I got my first comment on this blog,
• I bought my first personal computer during the 1980s,
• I wrote computer manuals in the 1970s,
• I slept out under the stars in Monument Valley,
• I went cross country by bus,
• I attended the Edinburgh Festival Fringe,
• I heard Pat Metheny play guitar,
• I sang in front of people,
• I met every person who is important to me,
• I saw my first Stephen Sondheim musical,
• I first heard the band Steely Dan over the sound system at a Cambridge store, playing this song …

• and countless other events.

I haven’t been the same since all those things happened and yet I’m still the same person.

I haven’t been the same since I took all these photos:

Give the happiness of a comment and I will end up happy.

I haven’t been the same since I first learned to express gratitude, so many thanks to all who helped me create today’s post and to you — of course! — for being changed and yet the same, every moment.