The Girl at the Pool

I think most of us, especially women, carry a handful of stories from our teenage years or our early twenties that still surface decades later. They are often small moments. A comment someone made, a look, a correction. Something that lasted only a few seconds but somehow lodged itself so deeply that it became part of the inner narrative we carry about ourselves. I want to tell you three of mine. And then I want to tell you what I would say to that younger version of me now.