LeoLin Bowen

Wonderful son of mine, I am going to let you in on a little secret. Your mother is a liar. In fact, people lie all of the time.

What is different now is that I know who I am and what I want. I’m not afraid to be alone and living single. I value my time and my health.

Be careful what you wish for because at eight years old my son is exactly like his father in this aspect. I'm now raising an outgoing kid and I'm reserved.

You are about to embark on a journey that you will be talking about and remembering for the rest of your life, so spend these next year’s enjoying it.

“This is what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.” My home is a cooperative house on the South Side of Chicago.

My son had just lost another tooth. When he looked up at me with his big, brown eyes and asked, “Mommy is the tooth fairy real?”

“I just love your squishy belly!” Then, as only children can do, he gave it a nickname: belly jelly. So I'm learning to love my belly jelly.

Inevitably, it happens. A well-meaning (or maybe not so well-meaning) white person will utter the phrase, “Well, I just don’t see color.”

I am usually introduced to people as “the vegan.” I get it. Vegan is the new “it” word and now you are actually meeting one.