## Erin Vale at Thirty-Two
Here is who I am: I am a medical-office scheduler. I live in a one-bedroom apartment that I recently upgraded to a two-bedroom. I have a credit report that reflects my actual financial history. I have a folder of documents I hope never to need. I have a friend named Tessa who answered the phone when I called and has kept answering since. I have a brother named Luke who sat at my kitchen table and asked a real question and listened to the answer.
I have a mother named Denise who I love and do not fully trust and am not sure what to do with yet, and I am trying to be honest about all three of those things simultaneously.
I have a down-payment plan that I am still working toward, on a slightly revised timeline, toward a future that still looks like what I have been building toward. The shape of it is the same. The route has been different from what I expected.
I have learned, in the last eight months, that it is possible to continue toward a thing you want even when the thing you are dealing with is directly in the way of it. That you can make space for the problem and the plan at the same time. That the plan does not have to stop because the problem arrived.
I have my name back on my own credit report. I have my apartment.
I have today, which is enough.