The Unexpected, Exhilarating Freedom of Being Single at 41

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I possess none of the traditionally recognized keys to happiness, no husband, no children. I am alone, a state which I am supposed to have spent my life trying to avoid. There is so much around me that suggests I should be feeling otherwise that at times I second-guess my own contentment. And yet, when people ask me what I do, I’m sometimes tempted to answer “whatever I want.”

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