By Emely Varosky

Don’t you hate it when you know of a song, but you can’t think of the lyrics?

I was trying to remember a song that says something along the lines of, ironically enough, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” And I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me. No, not even with the help of the almighty Google.

Then that particular song happened upon my Pandora playlist, and my mystery was solved:

“I see enough to know I’m blind.”

Stormtroopers, these are the lyrics you’re looking for. (Star Wars reference. Sorry.)

“I see enough to know I’m blind.”

My quest for this line began when a reporter friend and I were talking about someone (not a coworker, for the record) who thinks they know everything. In their own mind, they have all the answers. But they really don’t – and they don’t even see it.

They don’t know what they don’t know.

I’ve known a lot of people like that, and their self-satisfaction always bothered me. They think they’re cool. They know All The Things, and they don’t have to listen to anybody else.

As my friend and I criticized this person, he joked to me, “Good thing you and I are perfect, Em.”

And that’s what got me (over)thinking.

As of today, I’ve been an official stepmom for exactly one full year. Yep, it’s our first anniversary (yay us!). And I’ve been writing this column since then. If I’m counting correctly, that’s 52 columns.

That could be considered a lot of writing, a lot of me saying what’s in my brain.

And potentially, a lot of me thinking I know things.

I don’t know things. And as those 52 weeks have come and gone, I’ve been reminded just how much I don’t know.

For everything I learn with my stepkids, there’s fifteen-thousand-million more things that I haven’t even come across yet.

And I’ve worried that maybe it’s arrogant that I write this column. I mean, what makes me qualified to talk about anything related to these two little humans that I had no part in creating? I’m no authority on stepmomming.

“But you’re not pretending to be an authority on stepmomming,” my husband told me. “You’re just being a stepmom. And you’re writing about things you’ve learned that have worked, or not worked, in your own life as a stepmom.”

He’s right (as he is pretty often, actually – something else I’ve learned in our first year of marriage!). In these columns, I’m just telling my own experiences in my own stepmomming life.

I’m one full year into that life. In my own head, it feels like a long time with a lot of lessons learned.

But in reality, it’s not much. The first step should not be confused with the whole marathon. And I’m trying to remember that.

“I see enough to know I’m blind.”

I know enough to know that a lot of people know a heck of a lot more than I know. So I’ll just keep learning. And someday, I’ll look back and see how far I’ve come, because maybe by then, my eyes will be just a little bit clearer.

P.S. Happy Anniversary, Mr. Varosky — 365 days down, fifteen-thousand-million more to go! Approximately.

Email Emely Varosky at evarosky@heraldnews.com.