Member-only story
Intro to The Anxious Girl
About Me — Brett Jenae Tomlin
Like the boy, but not
I wince when I think of how many times I’ve said this to people trying to get their heads around a girl named Brett.
“You said your name was Breta? Brenda? Gretta? Grenda?”
“It's Brett.”
“Oh, Brat?” Seriously.
I enunciate like hell, with the Br, the eh, and the tuh. “No, Brett.”
“Oh, I see. Brit. Is that short for something?”
“It’s Brett. Like with an e. Bre-t-t.”
“Come again?”
“My name is Brett. Bre-t-t. Like Favre. You know, like the boy (I imitate throwing a football), but not.”
“Ohhhh, Brett. Nice to meet you.”
Where are you from?
I grew up on a farm in the middle of the Michigan mitten. I moved to Dallas, Texas in January of 2015, six months after my dad was found crushed beneath a felled tree behind the house I was living in.
Dallas is my home now, but I admit I tried to be a Southern belle and I just can’t get it right. I’m too wild, too thirsty, too real, and too silly to fit in well. I’ve felt that way most of my life. But when I go back to the mid-west, everything…
