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THE NARRATIVE ARC
Everyone Has a Jessica Blowback
Who’s yours?
Jessica Blowback sparked my competitive fire.
We met in Pre-K when we were enrolled in the same class at a small Montessori school. We were also two of about five kids at our tiny synagogue. Growing up in a (then) small, coastal Florida city meant not many Jews. This is not South Florida; there is a difference.
Jessica’s mom was a violin teacher and her dad was a successful attorney. Unlike my parents, they were both Jewish and still married. I am not sure if it was genetics, behavioral motivation or possibly a magnanimous fairy godmother that bestowed superhero-like powers upon Jessica, but from the beginning she was good at everything she did. Well, actually, she was driven to be the best at everything she did.
She was not particularly beautiful. She had curly, medium-brown hair (now blown straight), green eyes and fairly nondescript features. I witnessed her progression from baby chub to prepubescent gangly, to mother-of-three-but-still-slender (which some might say further attests to her superhero status).
Jessica graduated at the top of her class, went to Brown University, became an attorney, married a dental surgeon and is now a stay-at-home mom to her three kids. Thanks, Facebook!
