Ages and Stages

Being born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the 1950s was interesting because Nicole’s life would span many cultural, political, economic, social, and certainly personal situations. This book has been written after many years of self-reflection in an attempt to provide her story of the experiences and struggles of a girl growing up within a nuclear family, which caused self-exploration and personal definition. Certainly the strong family values of her middle-class family-the country club lessons in tennis and swimming, horseback riding lessons, and babysitting-created a dream for Nicole. The dream was to graduate from college, marry a rich man, and live on a horse farm with a pool and a few children. Yes, that was a dream! Nicole was not aware of life’s ages and stages! Attending a Grateful Dead concert in 1971 under the influence of drugs with a girlfriend from the dorm changed Nicole’s life forever! A motorcycle accident a few years later caused a near-death experience and ten days in an out-of-body experience, which confirmed that a change in her identity was occurring. Nicole moved numerous times during the seventies-Eugene, Oregon; East Lansing, Michigan; Boston, Massachusetts; Houston, Texas; Manchester, New Hampshire. She has earned a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and finally thought she was getting closer to her dream (minus the horse farm). But sexual identity was still unsettled, thus ages and stages continued. Only now after the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage does Nicole finally feel comfortable to share her story.