Manda Irene-Hegseth Tumberg

The Vikings are on, Tootsie Roll wrappers strewed about my green-Heyma couch, and I am writing on my blog for the fist time in over a year. I am now married, unpregnant, and living in Fargo, North Dakota. I no longer work with people with disabilities, but with kids in a YMCA Learning Center…so much for a better income and advanced prestige from my degrees.

Tonight, in one of my favorite events, a work meeting, an important question was asked of us – who are you? Not just who are you, but what is your purpose?

I sat there. How could such questions make my eyes slightly mist? Granted, it had been a long day; children seemed to be biting each other for eight hours, I had too low of protein to donate plasma and save for my new camera, and my eggs cracked on my groceries at the Wal-Mart checkout, but this was a valid question.

I think in college, especially in my Psychology classes, this question was asked constantly. But somewhere between courting Tyler to marriage, moving from Minneapolis to Fergus Falls to Fargo, and maybe even switching from working with the mentally ill to spending each day with one year olds, I lost that answer.

I wish I could come up with some sweet ending that will warm you, but I don’t know the answer. I think that is okay. At least I am willing to consider it and to seek again and be content with the uncertainty of searching.

I know one thing though…I am still Manda. Maybe not the same Manda that wrote those last blogs or that you first met, but I am still her. I guess I am just exploring this person named Manda Irene-Hegseth Tumberg and the place she belongs.