The day my mother conceived me was the day I started the journey of life, my monomyth. I grew inside her, as all do, it was warm, safe, and grew to know it and be comfortable in it. However, in the monomyth, we must all undergo a change where we leave our known world and enter a new one. The day I was born, was the day I left my safe, comfortable, known world, and entered a completely new one. And the way I was born, serves as my first obstacle that I must overcome, it’s my ‘Belly of the Whale.’ Where many just ‘come out’, I struggled out.
The mother yelled in pain. “The umbilical cord is wrapped around its neck.” Said the doctor as the mother tried to birth the child. He took the forceps, big curved tongs, and applied them to the babes head. He pulled the mother’s first born babe into the world. “A girl.” He said wiping her off a little and showing her briefly to the new parents before taking her to the baby cart. The doctors, including the babe’s grandfather, put her under the heating light. Screaming, the baby lay there as they unwrapped the umbilical cord from under her arm and around her neck. As the cord was taken away and light warmed her, the blue hue receded from her body. She was able to breathe completely again. They checked her over, making sure she would be alright. Passing, 8 out of 10, they put her into the resting arms of her mother. “Corynn Elizabeth.” The mother said as she cradled her new born in her arms, amazed. The father smiled down on them, as they took in their new born baby girl.
As you can see, the change from one world to another for me was difficult. I was, in a way ‘Called’ out of my mother’s womb, but I didn’t want to leave the safety and security it gave me. I had to be pushed, or in this case pulled, into the new world. My mother was there, as well as my father, grandparents, a doctor, and a nurse, and they all helped me out, they were my god and goddesses helping me over the threshold and through the belly of the whale. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but they were there to help me.
I was born in Pittsburgh. My parents lived in a small house in the suburbs. I don’t remember much of it, because I only lived in that house a total of 7 months. We moved to a small Christian camp outside of Pittsburgh, where my dad helped run it for inner city kids. My mom taught preschool. She was my first teacher. Preschool was my next big obstacle. But I went everyday with my cousin, Noelle, who only lived a few miles away. And we did everything together, so things weren’t that difficult. I also got a new baby sister, Kate, and she did everything with us as well.
Half way through my kindergarten year, I moved to overcome another obstacle. My family moved two hours away from everything I had grown used to, including my best friend. We moved to another Christian camp in Somerset County. The winter we moved, 1995, we were overloaded with snow. My mom kept Kate and I at home for kindergarten and preschool, and we all learned to adjust to our new home, and the harsher winters together. My mother was the goddess helping me through life and the beginning of the road of trials. However, we were also helping her in any way we could, since she was carrying our soon-to-be new baby sister. Cassie was born in 1996, over 6 years after me.
I don’t remember much of my first day of 1st grade, at a public school. It was different from preschool and kindergarten with my mom. But I made a lot of friends, and was able to adjust to elementary school. However, in my 3rd grade year, my mom decided she missed my sister and I too much, so she decided that after I finished my 3rd grade year and Kate her 2nd grade year, then she would home school us. The hardest thing about home schooling was that your classmates were your sisters, and your teacher was your mother. It was difficult at times, but we were all close and used to doing things together. The best part about home schooling was sleeping in till 8, going to school in your pajamas, and being done a little after lunch. And we got to go on at least 40 field trips every year. Our summer vacation one year, when we went to spend a week with my mom’s younger sister and her family at their lake house in Minnesota, that was even considered a field trip. But only because we traveled through 6 different states to get there.
However, when Kate and I became teenagers in 2002, and 2003, things got more difficult. Although we excelled in our schooling, we lacked when it came to being social. So, after each of our 7th grade years, my parents put us back into public school for our 8th grade year and on. I had no desire to return to public school, but I didn’t have a choice. My first day of 8th grade will forever be impressed in my memory. I had no idea what I was doing, where I was going, or what was going on. I was the little home schooled Christian girl thrown into a lion pit, according to me. Coming home from my first day, I began crying the minute I reached my mother’s arms. I had hated it. I heard people swearing and saying mean things. To me then, the worst thing I saw was the back of a kid’s shirt, it read “Smile if you did it last night!” I was appalled by it and cried myself to sleep the first week because public school was a horrid place that I hated. However, that would change. That year I met the girl who would become my best friend throughout high school, and even now in college, Sarah. She, along with Amanda, Sarah’s best friend, helped me overcome my first few weeks of the horrid public school. And the three of us remained close friends throughout high school.
Amanda, Sarah, and I did most things together. They helped me through breakups and school, and over time I grew out of my little Christian girl shell. They were also goddesses helping me through my life’s journey. They influenced my relationships, and helped me through the heart breaks. And I helped them through as well. I had many other friends as well, but was never as close to them as I was to Sarah and Amanda, except for my sister, Kate. She and I remained very close throughout our high school years. We had our fights, and didn’t always like each other all the time, but we constantly loved each other no matter what and were always there for each other.
I met my tempter in elementary school; I had a crush on him right away. But throughout my years of home schooling I forgot mostly about him. However, the crush returned when I returned to public school in 8th grade, and continued throughout high school. I dated a couple other guys my junior and senior year, but it wasn’t until the end of my senior year that He took an interest in me, and really became my tempter. Aaron, he was gorgeous, with the most beautiful eyes. He was fun, charming, and every girl wanted him. He was also the mysterious ‘Bad Boy,’ and naturally I did everything to get his attention. We dated off and on the last month of school and that summer. But I couldn’t seem to keep him, and I always got my heart broken. Overcoming the heartache each time was difficult, but no matter how many times he broke my heart, I’d still take him back.
Amanda, Sarah, and I graduated together. They were there be my side as we tossed our caps into the air. We had overcome high school together, and had no plans of losing our friendship. Although we each went to different colleges, Sarah to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Amanda to Juniata, and me to IUP, we talked often and remained best friends. College was another obstacle in each of our lives, and we planned on getting through it also with each other’s help. Aaron and I stopped dating, and didn’t talk much. But every time I’d go home, he was always there; flirting with me and making me want another relationship again. Amanda and Sarah tried to help me get over him, but the feelings just kept coming back. Sarah introduced me to as many guys as she could over the next year or so, but they never lasted long, and I’d always return to him. We became close friends the 2nd semester of our freshman year and friends with benefits when it was convenient for him. We seemed to go through a cycle, we’d be close, talking often, and hanging out, and then I would want something more and he’d refuse. We wouldn’t talk for a few weeks, and ignore each other or piss the other off when we saw each other, and then something would click, and we’d starting talking and hanging out again, and everything would just repeat. Things continued this way that summer and into the beginning of our sophomore year.
Although I was trying to figure out what was going on between Aaron and I, half way through that June I took on another obstacle, a broken collar bone. Jumping off the back of a moving pick-up truck is not a good idea. Having a broken collar bone put me in a sling for at least 4 weeks, which meant no working, lifting, or moving it. The best part, was not having to do anything all day, but for someone like me, not being able to shoot a gun was the worst thing of all. Those next four weeks were boring and extremely uneventful. And the 4 weeks after that were almost as bad since my bone wasn’t healing as fast as my doctor would have liked it to. So a whole summer of lying around with no form of income was an obstacle I found very difficult to get over. Just like the rabbits in Watership Down who had to continue through life with injuries, so did I.
Aaron and I are currently still going through our same cycle, little has changed between us. We’ve faced some obstacles together, as close friends, and helped each other overcome them. We’ve dated others, and helped the other through heart break when things didn’t work out. A poem I wrote after a break up with one guy;
“There was no color in her face
All manner of life had left her
each new straw put her that much closer
that much closer to her last page
The pain he had caused her
grew out of control
each moment she remembered
each message she reread
each feeling she relived
sent a needle through her heart
one by one
thousands and thousands
poking holes in her already broken and fragile heart
he had given her hope
hope of a future with him
hope that things could go back to the way they had been
hope, that she could be happy
And then, like a band aid
he began to pull it back
slowly
making sure every last inch of her was covered in pain
her frail heart couldn’t take it any longer
it burst, into pieces so small,
that each could pass through the eye of a needle
and as he drew back the last sliver of hope she had,
he smiled,
that smile that had caught her the first time
that smile that had given her hope and happiness once upon a time,
now drained her completely.
Her face was clear; no sign of blemish, but it was pale.
paler than Snow White’s as she lay in her golden coffin
paler, because she knew that she would never be awoken by true love’s kiss as Snow White.
Paler still because the only lips that could breathe life back into her,
were the same lips that had taken it away so heartlessly.
She lay there, cold, silent. And watched him turn his back on her, and walk away, again.
But as she lay there, forgotten, in the cold streets, she dreamed
she dreamed of a place where everyone was happy
a place where someone loved her inside and out, for who she was
and as she stepped into the white light, she saw him,
the one who truly did love her
she ran into his welcoming arms and felt the warmth of his embrace flow through her,
his loving voice boomed thru the mountains, ‘Welcome home, my child.’
He said as he held her close, ‘You are beautiful.’
And He made her dreams reality.”
Aaron, along with Amanda, Sarah, Kate, my parents, and other friends and family have all helped me throughout my journey of life. They have helped me to become the woman I am today. I have many obstacles still to overcome, and my ultimate boon I’m still reaching for. I have yet to find my purpose in life, therefore I do not have an apotheosis, or an ending to my book, like the books we’ve read. There will be more people who enter my life to either help me through or hinder me. I also have therefore not returned to where I came from, but my ultimate boon is to get there someday. I know things will get difficult, but after everything I’ve been through, I know that with help, I can get through anything. And that someday I’ll find my purpose in life, reach my ultimate boon, and return to my maker.
YAY!!! “A”