Pandora's Box: A Memoir

By Racine Summers

The old saying goes “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Unfortunately, it rained lemons, they seemed to be thrown at me from every angle. I’d accumulated an ungodly amount of lemons. Some started to rot, some dried up, others were so sour you could feel your eyes sweat just looking at them. I tried to set up a lemonade stand, I really did, but masking sour with sweet only takes you so far now doesn’t it. I was sick of lemonade, and quite frankly, not having it with the lemons. So, I did what any sensible woman would do; gathered them up, traded them for a paper and pen, jotted down a thing or two, and before I knew it, a tale unfolded before me. Needless to say, I present you with my version of lemonade.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665548212

Racine Summers

Racine Summers is a student, business woman, fashion guru, and now, an author. She grew up in the city of Chicago, always having big dreams and goals of reaching them. While growing up, she often joked about writing a book on her childhood and coming of age story, but always having to meet her goals, that soon became a reality. She hopes to write more non-fiction in the future as her passion for storytelling has yet to be tamed.

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© 2021 Racine Summers. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Edited by Caylee Fournier

Published by AuthorHouse  03/22/2022

ISBN: 978-1-6655-4820-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-4821-2 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in

this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views

expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the

views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1     Baby Fever

Chapter 2     Don’t Do Drugs, Kids

Chapter 3     Right Left Right

Chapter 4     26 Letters in the Alphabet

Chapter 5     Since the Dawn of Time

Chapter 6     Stranger Danger

Chapter 7     Unforgotten

Chapter 8     143

Chapter 9     No More Frogs at The Wit

Chapter 10   Look in the Mirror and Say I Fucking Love You

Chapter 11   Wonder Woman

About the Author

Preface

I hate Sundays. Hangxiety leads to anxiety of any and all interactions, should-haves, would-haves, what-ifs, you name it. On Sundays we relax and have a moment with ourselves before the craziness of the week begins. A moment to reflect on the week, no work, no school, not many social gatherings. There’s never anything really exciting going on on Sundays; church, you may say, but to that I say–I’m Jewish. On Sundays, I find myself often slipping into the whirlwind of anxiety that exists within my head, hyper analyzing scenarios that happened years ago or passed in a manner of seconds. On Sundays, I face the music, the reality, the harsh truth if you may.

I’ve always said my life seems like a movie, not quite the rom-com generational classic, but more the series of unfortunate events sitcom mixed with a hint of telenovela drama. While I may strive to be the first of the two, that’s something that seems quite intangible at this point. In every American coming of age movie the girl falls hopelessly in love, navigates a couple of obstacles, and ends up with the man of her dreams. The dazzling gown touches the floor as she makes her way around the staircase on prom night, the camera swerves to fixate on his gaze and utter amazement. He’s standing there, flowers in hand, as if he has never seen anything like this rather mundane spectacle in his entire life. They touch hands sending shivers through the screen and into the audience. They are in love, it’s beautiful, magical even. I’m here to tell you that that’s a load of bullshit.

This isn’t one of those I hate love, love isn’t real tales of a damsel in distress. Actually, scratch that. The princess in this story unfortunately does incur many obstacles, and therefore arguably is in distress. Less exciting than fairytales of slaying dragons and conquering treacherous molten lava barriers, but obstacles nonetheless. There is no prince in this story either, sorry to disappoint. So what is the point, Racine? You’re losing us! I simply am here to tell you my story of a long history