In short, I will be the ancestor who some future family historian will run across, and she will read my story, and she will be all, “Jamie was a bad ass!” And she will start her own badassery, inspired by me. And her parents will be a bit dismayed. And I am ok with all of that.

I’ll be the one who swam in a 5 Great Lakes and three oceans.

I’ll be the one who celebrated the last day of HS each year by skinny dipping in the local lake.

The one who travel to Scotland and swam naked in Loch Ness as a full on adult.

I’ll be the sports writer and podcaster, the one who had been on TV,

The one who did photo shoots in cemeteries and had a pack of huge black dogs and an affinity for crows and ravens

I’ll be the one who taught the kids who to sword fight, how to “spy”.

I’ll be the one who spent tons of time in Traverse City eating, drinking, hiking, and ghost hunting.

I’ll be the one who traveled to NYC while the scars on the city were still fresh and explored on her own

I won’t be the woman who has the uncanny ability to soothe with just the right words.

So what will I be?

I’ll be the Aunt Who once shot an arrow into a wall while babysitting and filled the hole with toothpaste so the parents were none the wiser.