My Perfect Imperfect Life
A few years ago, I was standing at the barre (扶手杠) waiting for my adult ballet class when I heard a voice behind me. "So, do you have this perfect life?"
My first reaction was to1who was being asked such an odd question. Then I remembered there were only two of us in the room. When I turned2, the other woman was looking straight at me.
I had no idea how to answer it. Was she3? Who has a perfect life? Sure, occasionally I did find the perfect dress or the perfect pair of shoes,4never would I use that word to describe anything about me or my life. I felt a twinge of guilt for somehow giving her that5.
She watched me. I finally6to whisper a quick "No".
By then, the teacher had entered the room and turned on the music to start class. With a sigh of7, I moved my feet into the best position. But as soon as my knees bent for our first pose, I realized my8had been disturbed. This woman's words wouldn't9echoing in my thoughts.
I wanted to know how she came up with her very mistaken10. If she knew anything about my life, she never would have had the11to ask me that question.
I did my best to do our floor exercises in front of the mirror. For a few moments, I didn't see the usual12of my older self attempting to use a beautiful art form to 13my gracefulness. I only saw the little girl whose father died when she was two, the child who walked home from elementary school every day to an empty house, who learned to sew her own clothes to14money.
Perfect. My life had been far from it.
When those memories15, I was left with a vision of the woman I had become, the woman16by all those things I considered imperfect. I now saw the woman who had learned to be self-reliant, who17her family and her friends, who didn't take life for granted. Was that the "perfect" this woman had detected?
I still don't know, but I no longer feel18or feel like I must keep track of all the difficult times to prove my life isn't19. If ever again asked whether my life is perfect, I would have a different20. Because now I see that, despite all its imperfection, it is.
