Where salty meets sweet...
Who is Sentimental Sass?
The face of Sentimental Sass is a girl named Lauren Townsend. She isn’t famous, lacks a book deal and she doesn’t have any actual credentials as a writer, but she got the wild idea to start a writing page anyway. Crazy, I know.
She’s a daughter, a sister, a mother, a military spouse and a friend. Professionally, she’s a bit more complicated. To sum that piece up, she’s a college student, turned financial sales assistant, turned elementary school teacher, turned stay at home mother, turned financial sales assistant yet again, turned who knows what else, but a love for writing has always been at her core. This deep-rooted love has led her to sharing with friends who she thinks she can resonate with. Notice she said ‘Friends’. There is no audience here. If you’ve joined this group, you’re Lauren’s friend now and you’ll stay that way until she’s shown otherwise. Lauren’s mother has always called her a swan. She mates for life and that absolutely includes her friendships.
Lauren seldom meets a stranger and rarely says goodbye to a friend, but when she does either thing, it’s extremely telling. She gives her heart away easily, quickly and often, and with that has come her fair share of heartbreak, too. There’s value and catharsis in sharing some of that stuff both to mend her own heart and to help others feel less alone, too. So some of that messy stuff will be talked about along this journey.
Lauren has lived in many homes over the years. Two with her family growing up, four during college and then six as a military spouse. The continual uprooting can be daunting, but she knows that her state of residency will always be in her heart. With the people she meets along the way, with the friends she makes and the people who teach her things, with her husband and her children and their shared experiences, and with those scattered around the world in this topsy-turvy lifestyle. She can make her home anywhere because she brings it all with her in her heart. A gift like that could make even a cardboard box feel homey, but let’s not get too carried away. She’s a sucker for safety, security and comfort, so that box at least needs running water and a locking door. Some WiFi would be nice, too.
Lauren knows she’s lucky to be alive, and therefore, doesn’t take a single day for granted. With a life marked by some significant health scares and diagnoses, her writing often talks about the psychology of living with cancer and managing a type of cancer for which there isn’t a cure. If you are in such rare ranks, you understand how overwhelming that can be, but mostly she’s found a way to deal with it. She has outlets and support groups that she’s a member of. And even though she’s always moving, she makes it her mission to find knowledgeable and compassionate doctors who can both monitor her case and also understand that she’s just theirs for a little while, until it’s time to move on once again. But because of all of this, she feels she can be a wonderful advocate for her disease. She can teach people about it because it is so rare. She can help people get their initial diagnosis since the course of this cancer is so tricky and often overlooked. She can refer you to specialists in four major US cities because that’s how many she’s lived in since her diagnosis was made. She can talk candidly and honestly about the treatments she’s received and the outcomes for each. She can relate to the heavy reality that a diagnosis can and may follow you for the rest of your life and even the unknown variable that it might kill you. Lauren’s commitment to live a full life anyway is something she knows can reach people. She knows that she can help other people see that their health and their circumstances don’t have to slow them down or define them either. And on the hard days, we can lean on each other. Lauren promises to hold you up today, tomorrow and every day after that. But experience has shown her that the nights are sometimes harder, so this is a ‘round the clock vow.
Your part is way simpler. You just have to be okay with the sentimental sass that goes along with it…