Winning On and Off the Court
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Empowered Woman
By Pascale Duguay

How wrong is it for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself?
~Anaïs Nin

My rude awakening came a few months after my son was born. I sat in bed, alone in the dark, feeling confused, upset, and lost. As the crickets chirped an endless chorus outside my bedroom window, I wondered where I had gone wrong. My thoughts inevitably focused on my partner, the source of my present sorry state.

I first met my partner on a badminton court at the age of eighteen. Although we had now been together for nearly eight years, we were still very much children. Neither of us had the inclination to get a steady job. We saw ourselves as free spirits with no wish to be trapped in the nine-to-five grind. We got by as best we could, mostly from money earned through part-time work. Both being athletes, we spent most of our abundant free time either playing badminton or training to become stronger and better badminton players. (Keep reading)