I’m not usually good with secrets. I’m not the best at keeping them for others. Most of my own have become poems, newspaper columns, therapy discussions, blogs, books. But I have a few, mostly from my parents. They don’t know I got a third tattoo. They don’t know I signed for my estranged cousin’s car and have to wait three more years until the repo gets cleared off my credit record(or that the little ingrate owes me at least $11k.) They don’t know I’m pregnant.

I am a mujer in the deepest sense now. I am an adult. I am a mother. I am carrying a new life. It’s time my folks realize who I really am.

Its scary. I got comfortable being the family success story as well as the odd girl out. Now I’m just a woman, a new mom, a parent to be. If I can accept this change, my parents eventually will.