The Aftermath of Forever: How I Loved and Lost and Found Myself

The Aftermath of Forever is a memoir that chronicles the romantic coming-of-age of a woman in her 20s dating in San Francisco. After the disappointment of a failed marriage, Natalye Childress embarks on a soul-searching journey to discover what happens when the one you thought you would be with forever breaks your heart. Using music as a vehicle to express herself, she revisits ten men from her past and paints a portrait of their relationships through the mixtapes she made for them. She catapults herself into the hedonistic world of noncommittal beaus, abusive boyfriends, and friends with benefits. She candidly dissects her love life on the page as she shares the inspiring and hopeful moments alongside the awkward and painful realizations that accompany dating in the present day, when everyone is looking for something different. These men, although they leave her life almost as quickly as they entered it, collectively help shape her future as she embarks on a quest not only to find love, but to find herself. Ultimately, she learns the age-old lesson that in order to truly be loved by someone else, she needs to first learn how to love herself.One of our interns made all the mixtapes and listened to each one while reading the chapter it goes with. Check out her review of the experience here.    Aftermath of Forever: How I Loved, Lost, and Found Myself. The Mix Tape Diaries from Microcosm Publishing on Vimeo.