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USA250 Journal Project
Personal Chronicle: July 4, 2025 – July 5, 2026
A gift for reflection. A record of now. A story for what’s next.
✍️ “Who am I?”
I’m Lauren Meyers.
Nurse. Single mom. Not great at resting.
I’ve been someone’s everything since I was twenty-seven, and I’m still learning how to be just mine.
I’m the one you call when your kid has a fever, your dog eats chocolate, or your life is unraveling at 9:30 p.m. on a Tuesday.
I drink too much coffee, carry other people’s stories like luggage, and forget to refill my own prescription half the time.
Meredith calls me her rock.
I call myself a walking triage unit with a decent Spotify playlist.
Who am I?
I’m the friend who shows up even when I shouldn’t have to.
I’m the mom who’s figuring it out as I go.
I’m the woman in aisle six crying over cereal because it finally got too heavy to carry.
And still—I get up the next morning.
Because someone always needs something.
And I’m someone who answers.
✍️ Prompt Two: “How did I get here?”
I got here by doing the next right thing.
One shift, one form, one diaper, one exam, one bedtime, one bill at a time.
I married young, divorced quiet.
There’s no good time for your marriage to collapse, but somewhere between daycare payments and forgetting your own birthday felt especially unfair.
Zach was five when it happened. He cried for a week. Then he stopped asking.
He’s fifteen now. Still doesn’t ask.
I picked up extra shifts, picked up groceries on the way home, picked up pieces of everyone but myself.
Met Meredith at a school fundraiser—she offered me wine in a paper cup and said, “God, I hate small talk.” We’ve been real ever since.
Now? I’m tired. Not the “take a nap” kind of tired. The kind that sinks into your bones and makes you wonder if this is just who you are now.
But I keep going.
How did I get here?
By loving hard and surviving harder.
By saying “yes” when I should’ve said “help.”
By refusing to fall apart when no one else had time to notice.
What has life taught me?
That caretaking can hollow you out if you don’t refill.
That you can be the strong friend and still need saving.
And that sometimes, the bravest thing is admitting you’re not fine—and saying it out loud anyway.
Friends
Meredeth Alton – Best friend and neighbor.
