when simone de beauvoir said “i’m reliving it, neutralizing it, and transforming it into an inoffensive past that i can keep in my heart without either disowning it or suffering from it. that’s not easy. it’s at once painful and poetic.”
We also need to stop saying she’s “free”. She isn’t. She still has 10yrs probation, mandatory community service hours, and requirements for maintaining a job in order to remain unincarcerated. She’s been released from a physical prison only to enter the open air prison so many people in the carceral state are confined to.
This shouldn’t be over. She should be fully pardoned. It’s unconscionable that they can choose to incarcerate her again for any minor infractions they deem in violation of her probation. This release shouldn’t be conditional, and right now it is.
Yeah, I hate to seem like a debbie downer but this definitely needs to be pointed out. People are already acting like this is over, when it’s very much not. And that’s part of the problem. Do not be easily appeased by this news. The issue is deeper still.
I didn’t figure out my passion or what may bring me the most joy until well into age 27. Looking back on the stress of 18-26, it would have made no sense for me to settle into anything else and I wouldn’t have been ready to settle into what I love back then either. Some of us “bloom” later. Have compassion and patience with yourself, but be proactive.
