My name is Allyssa and I own The Locket Sisters. I started it with my eldest sister (I have four siblings) but it's just me (and my co-worker Mandy) now. I was voted Class Clown in HS and studied Spanish and Journalism in college. I studied abroad in Ecuador and then returned a decade later when my husband and I bought one-way tickets to Buenos Aires. I used to work in the non-profit world but leapt out while on maternity leave with my second kid (still remember sending that email). I always thought I'd have more than two kids but post-partum depression was so dark for me that I empowered myself with the decision to not have more. The two I have, mmmmmmm, I am so f'ing grateful our souls found one another. I love mothering them in partnership with their Dad, who is my husband, my lover, for 18 years now.

I like to discover and evolve. I'm curious about so many things and enjoy the company of myself, so I'm almost never bored or lonely. I still maintain close, regular contact with friends from every phase of my life from as far back as kindergarten. I'm a lover and a fighter, but lately, I feel mostly just like a lover. I feel like I've hopped out of some kind of thought matrix over the last 18 months and am thinking more freely, more openly, more curiously than I ever have before. It's the first time I've felt fully autonomous in my body and mind in my life - a luxury I don't take for granted. I reflect often on the distinction and relationship between cognitive dissonance, joy, freedom, oppression and apathy - because while I am most def paying attention to and engaged with the world around me and beyond, I also, oddly, feel better than ever.

When my Grandma Lillian was alive we'd always argue about the state of the world. She always said it was the worst it's ever been, and I'd maintain that information just travels faster and more transparently now, but nothing is new.

We just see what we want to see, don't we?