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Summer Bowling

Bipolar disorder is a mental illness primarily characterized by
extreme mood swings. Those with the mood disorder
experience intangible high points known as mania and
horrific down points known as depression. My mother is
bipolar.

⁂

My mother made up a lullaby for me when I
was a baby. “Summer Dawn is a Summer
Dawn, she’s the one I’m counting on.” The
unique tune still floats through my mind,
years after last hearing my mother sing it.

I have heard from my aunt and uncle—the
two people who primarily raised me, in
conjunction with my father—that they saw
hand marks all over my legs when I was a
toddler, from my mother holding me upside
down and smacking me.

My favorite book to have my mother read to
me as a child was Are You My Mother?
Although not by Dr. Seuss, the book had a
similar art style, even complete with a Cat in
the Hat sticker on the cover. The book follows
a baby bird who falls out of his nest and must
search for his mama bird. Baby bird asks
several animals if they are his mother—none
of them are. Eventually, mama and baby
reunite. After reading the book, I would ask,

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