Be a homemaker he said. I’ll buy a big house in the suburbs. I’ll work so you won’t have to. You can take care of the babies.

Create a book group, crochet, knit. It’ll be so nice. Create a space for your children and yourself. Surround yourself with nubby blankets and scented candles. Invite your friends for Christmas.

Don’t worry about ascent. No need for 401k, I’ll take care of the bills. You go to Marshalls find things that delight you. Put them on the shelves. 

30 years from now when you decide that you are more than a trinket, and your kids are grown, and your walls are beautifully painted, you’ll look around and you’ll see: the home that you’ve created was just a dream.

That space, that contained everything you loved, was never your own. Your name. Your own beautiful name, is not on even on the mortgage.

But sure as ink is black, it will be. It will be.