The Time It Takes to Age

Authors

Rebecca Smylie

Keywords

Mormon studies, personal essay, Africa

Abstract

We moved to Africa for my husband’s job, and those first months in Dakar, Senegal, were hard. We had a newborn and were sleep deprived. The antimalarials gave me bad dreams. We were living out of suitcases, we found dead birds in the back bedroom, and our three-year-old couldn’t seem to stop crying. Increasingly, we heard her fighting with a row of new imaginary friends, who were more often than not consigned to time out in the “bird room.” How would I survive two years?

Recommended Citation

Smylie, Rebecca (2016) "The Time It Takes to Age," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 55: Iss. 4, Article 12.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol55/iss4/12