Family, Fate, and Fortune Tellers: Navigating Romantic Relationships When You Just Want a Baby
I didn’t know, anymore, how to date like a normal person—how to give a potential relationship the space to grow into the family I dreamt of.
This isMy Future, My Fertility, a column in whichKarissa Chenwrestles with her questions about fertility, motherhood, and future-planning after thirty-five.
easy
can’t
shouldn’t This probably isn’t true anyway.
practical
feelingDo you want children, soon? Do you want to get married, soon? Are you financially stable enough so that we could raise a family together, soon?
moreIf it turns out any of your answers are “no,” what am I even doing here?
usme.
. The future you want is the future I want, too. The worries you have are my worries to share. You are not aloneWe’ll figure this out together.
as soon as possible
because
quite right
person
can
Karissa Chen's fiction and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including Gulf Coast, PEN America, Guernica, and Longreads. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Taiwan in 2015-16 and received a 2019 Fellowship from the New Jersey Council on the Arts, and is a proud Fellow of both Kundiman and VONA/Voices. She currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief at Hyphen, Fiction Editor at the Rumpus, and a Contributing Fiction Editor at Catapult. She is working on a novel.
Enter your email address to receive notifications for author Karissa Chen
Success!
Confirmation link sent to your email to add you to notification list for author Karissa Chen
More by this author
When I Froze My Eggs, I Wasn’t Prepared for the Depression That Followed
I wish I had been warned—not because it would have changed my mind about the procedure, but because I might have been more prepared.
My Body, My Story
What I forgot, for years and years, were the details of what my body experienced at the time. But my body did not forget.
What I Did for the Chance to Have a Baby Someday
I flew to Taiwan the year I turned thirty-six, a trip I’d booked solely for the purpose of freezing my eggs.
More in this series
Tteokguk for a New Year and a New Start
When I was younger, I didn’t understand the restorative, purifying effect of tteokguk. Maybe I didn’t even feel like I deserved it. This year, I welcome it.
Thinking About My Future and My Fertility at Thirty-Six (and Eight Months)
The desire to be a mother is now something that lingers inside of me, an omnipresent hunger.
When Doodles Tell a Story Words Cannot
Drawing is a skill like reading, like writing, which can be learned by anyone regardless of talent. It is a mental discipline.