The Single Woman’s Dash of Sass: Takin’ the Long Way Around

Quote of the Day:

“My friends from high school
Married their high school boyfriends
Moved into houses
In the same ZIP codes where their parents live.

But I could never follow…
No I could never follow.

I’ve been a long time gone now
Maybe someday I’m gonna settle down
But I’ve always found my way somehow…

By takin’ the long way
Takin’ the long way around.”

~The Dixie Chicks

The Single Woman Says:

I was born on Thanksgiving Day of 1978…exactly 33 years ago today…and though I arrived in the world only about an hour or so after my mom went into labor, my birth was the only fast-paced thing I’ve ever done in my life.

For me, it seems I have spent my life “Taking the long way around.” I’ve always related to the Dixie Chicks song quoted above because I’ve never done anything in the conventional way, or followed in the traditional footsteps of most of my friends and family. College, marriage, babies, nice two-story home ten minutes from the high school I graduated from, minivan, Tupperware parties, car pool, soccer games…basically Nirvana for the typical 33-year-from small-town Tennessee. Sometimes I think my parents aren’t quite sure what to do with me. They made an agreement years ago with my sister and I to pay for our car insurance until we got married. With my sister, they got off easy, as she was married at 27. With me, I think they’re starting to wonder if they’ll be paying for my insurance for the rest of eternity. Bless their hearts. In a small southern town like the one I grew up in, not being married at age 33 is a bit of an oddity. About 95% (or more) of my high school classmates are married and have been for years, many with multiple children. And here I am…still me…still single…still making my way through life at my own pace, marching to the beat of a drummer that at times, it seems, can only be heard by me.

And now, at age 33, after arguably the most wildly colorful and amazing and unforgettable year of my life…I am at peace with my place in life. Age 32 allowed me to make priceless memories, and travel to places I’ve never been, and be kissed in Times Square, and have adventures I will cherish for a lifetime, and meet my biggest teen idol, and fall in love, and have my heart broken, and take risks I never dreamed I’d be brave enough to take, and make new bonds with new friends and strengthen old bonds with old friends. And through it all, I have come to realize that it’s better to take the LONG way than to take the WRONG way. If taking the long way means getting to experience life solo for awhile longer, I am perfectly okay with that. Because I realize now that I might be single, but I am not singular. I am joined on my journey by the most incredible cast of characters…my precious family, and the most amazing friends a girl could ask for – friends not only here in Nashville but all across the United States that I’ve come to think of as family (and yes, my ladies…this means YOU!) – and an incredible business partner, and a loving, accepting church family that allows me to be exactly who I AM, and most of all…by YOU. My wonderful, amazing, feisty, supportive, spirited, loyal, dynamic, one-of-a-kind followers and readers who own my heart. YOU have inspired me every single day of the past 365, and it is my honor to be a part of your lives. And I can’t thank of a better time than the day before Thanksgiving to tell you, from the very bottom of my heart…

THANK YOU.

Now let’s go see what the next 365 have to offer…shall we? J

Love,
Mandy
“The Single Woman”