I don’t know if I could simultaneously be a mother and be a happy person. Important to highlight is that this is just me right now. My mind could change as it has a thousand times before. My maternal instincts could kick in tomorrow, and I may choose the potential joy of the unknown over the guaranteed comfort of the known.

It is important that you savour these fleeting seconds. Sure, they don’t mean much but there are simply moments that you do not get twice. Mothers get older and fathers die and puppies don’t stay puppies forever.

The reward of community then is that those boundaries shift. I do not like waiting, at all, but there are three, maybe four people in the world who know I will wait for them no matter what. I do not like hanging out in groups, but there are three, maybe four people that I could do a group hangout for. And during the time that I am waiting or during the time that my social anxiety is doing cartwheels during a group hangout, I am reminding myself that this is my contribution to community.