The World is Your Oyster

Shelbee On The Edge
4 min readJan 1, 2022

by Michelle Montoro

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The world is your oyster.

Have you ever hear that phrase?

It is one that I have carried with me for many, many years.

There once was a very influential man in my life…when I was in my mid-twenties.

I was going through a divorce. I was still trying to discover myself. I was trying to figure out the person I wanted to be. I was working full time and going to law school at night.

I was driven.

I was determined.

I was spiraling out of control.

Much of this period in my life is really just a blur. It is sort of unfortunate that I don’t recollect much of it. Or maybe not. Perhaps it is better that I don’t remember the crazy.

The crazy that was me.

The havoc that I was unknowingly bringing into the lives of others. Ah, it is in the past now and we have all moved on. Thankfully.

While I may forgotten a lot about that period of my life over two decades ago, I do remember this very special man.

He was fifteen years my senior. He was my boss. He was my mentor. He was my support system. He became my lover and my best friend.

And eventually because the crazy got to be too much even for me, we lost touch. However, I had the opportunity a few years back to meet up with him for coffee. At that point, we had not seen one another for over twelve years. Twelve years is a long time. So much changes in twelve years that it is difficult to comprehend it all at once.

Our coffee meet up was brief because we both had other engagements scheduled. While I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation and catching up on topics such as family, kids, work, and people we used to know, an hour and a half just was not enough time to say all the things. All the things that I wanted to say. So I’m just going to say them here. To forever memorialize the important impact this man had on my life and to publicly express my gratitude to him.

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Shelbee On The Edge

Michelle is a passionate scholar and a lover of words with a driving desire to help others in the pursuit of becoming the best possible versions of themselves.