Marisa Donnelly

1. Actually make plans.

This is the misconception about strong women: that we are difficult to love.

Something relatively simple happens, like finding $20, or getting the best parking spot in the lot, or a 25 cent raise, and you can’t wait to share it…but you get a lump in your throat because you just can’t anymore.

In a single second you can cross a street, you can whisper ‘I love you,’ you can take off in an airplane, you can feel your stomach drop, you can smile, or you can watch someone you love take his last breath.

I want you to know one thing—you are not alone.

You believed in me. Me—in my brand new dress pants and pressed shirt and clean cardigan and matching flats, but a nervous hint in my steps—you trusted me.

You love these little guys. Not because they are your own and you have to, but because it comes naturally. You don’t have to love them, but you do.

This is what you need to know about me: I’ll love the hell out of you. I’ll care for you. But I’ll be damned if you think I’m the woman that will sit silently next to you that will do everything for you, pick up after you, be your mother. That’s not me.