Coven Catering by Emraldae

My English teacher is loud. A self admitted assertive person. And convinced I am passive.
She has been talking a lot lately about how where we come from shapes us as people.

It is true, at times I can appear to be quite a passive person, but I’ve always liked to think I just choose my battles carefully.
I’ve never been one to assert myself where the situation does not call for it.
That being said, I like to think that when it’s called for, I stand my ground.

For the first time since I was twelve, I spent time around my mothers friends.
They were loud, strong willed women with dirty humour and partners who could stand their ground along side them.
In short, they were every bit how I remembered them.
I was raised by these women. So does that mean I can be passive?

These women sat around drinking, smoking and cackling. When it’s needed, they provide a service they call ‘coven catering’ where they all step in and help those among them who need it.
Their women who, despite natural talents and the opinions of others, have gone out into the word and done what they wanted. For example, a close friend of my mothers has the most beautiful singing voice (or so I’ve been told) and even dated one of australia’s most famous blues singers, going as far as appearing on the album cover and doing backing vocals.
She has never wanted to preform or be a performer. She works in a nursery, tending to her passion for plants.

Watching my mother around these women who form the closest circle of her friends, was like watching her go through a metamorphosis. She was still the same woman, but she was stronger, she laughed at dirty jokes (although I’m told because of the family setting they were all on their best behaviour) and glowed with wisdom I’d forgotten she had.

I read somewhere that all children are meant to find their parents embarrassing and unable to relate. After seeing mine with their friends, I realised I don’t. I respect them for their strength and independence.

Later that evening, one of my mothers friends came up to me and said ‘Darling, you’ve grown (to which I replayed that I hadn’t) oh no, not up. Look at you… it’s more… out. Your a woman now.’

Does this acceptance of my parents make me a woman? does physical features? Does my ability to pick my fights make me a woman? I don’t know, but I think I am beginning to feel like one.

On the other hand, all this has led me to discover that there are two, if not three, vastly different sides to me. They make me who I am, but they juxtapose each other. My challenge, I feel, will be to find how to create the sides of me into a singular person, encompassing them all. In some ways, looking around, it almost seems like the world is going through something like that too.
Truly it is turning out to be a devastating year.

In other news, I finally got around to getting my Learners permit less than a month before my 18th. I’d be careful on the roads from now on.