A simple blank book with a faux leather cover, embossed with this famous quote:

To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?

My mom got this for me for Christmas, probably with little thought beyond making me happy by giving me something relevant to a known interest. She probably thought it looked nice, had a famous and familiar quote, and since she had been made to memorize it in high school, she had a personal connection to it that she could share with me.

But, in the thirty seconds it took to open the gift, recognize what it was, and remember what I had also memorized in high school, the words opened up to me, taking on a whole new meaning. They landed squarely in the space exposed by this blog’s inaugural post, and seemed to embed themselves within me as a motto of my current state of being. I could have posted this quote instead of the previous post, and it would have covered everything.

“To be or not to be…”

I have said those words so many times, but they have never before been so personal.