What I wish for my daughter is to be courageous, adventurous and confident--all the qualities that the Tiger embodies. After nearly 20 years of fighting my Tiger Mom tendencies, I realized that the best way to show her how to actualize her own Tiger presence was by leaning into that myself.

So many of us work toward some penultimate achievement, be it professional ascension or a safe, stable happy home life. And when we reach it, something emerges from the dark underbelly that says, “is that all there is?”. But we won’t say that because, well, it would seem ungrateful.

“WAIT!” I say. “Give me another chance. I bet if I do the last two lines again, I can read them PERFECTLY!”
At this point, my eye doctor looks at me like I’m crazy.