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She steps into the exam room, staring at the chart the nurse shoved into her hands and quickly trying to assess my medical history in the five steps between the door and the exam table.

She looks up, squints at my forehead a wee bit too long, and then fixes her gaze just a bit lower.

"Your friends must be envious of your skin!" she proclaims, making me question either her eyesight or her medical credentials.

Possibly both.

Apparently she missed the reason for my appointment that clearly states "25-year acne sufferer" and "what the hell can I use for these wrinkles" as reasons for my dermatologist visit today.

"Um, NO," I say, maybe a little bit too quickly. "My skin is nothing to brag about," I add, instantly wishing I were sitting in the dental chair instead.

With nitrous oxide.

"Your neck!" she exclaims, "The skin on your neck is smooth and firm, beautiful," she says, with a glint in her eyes that almost makes me believe her. If she wasn't young enough to be my daughter.

Maybe she had wine with lunch.

At this point, I am forced to ponder my neck... a part of my body I have never considered as a separate entity, I guess. The biggest job my neck has is holding my head up and supporting a necklace now and then. And even then I have been known on many occasions to simply rest my head on my desk after a particularly strenuous bout of editing. So even my neck can be lazy.

My neck? Never a point of conversation until now.

My babies have nuzzled my neck after midnight feedings, when the lure of sleep called to me from the bedroom but motherhood won and I stayed just a few moments longer on the couch to drink in their sweet, milky scent. My neck has comforted a little girl with a broken arm, a boy who lost his grandfather, kids mourning the loss of their first family dog and a dear friend who lost her husband too early and too tragically. My neck snuggled my mother when she lost her husband too many years too soon and cradled my husband when he lost not one but both of his beloved grandfathers.

I have craned my neck ever so slightly to see if a teenager's car has pulled up in the driveway yet... at half past 11. My neck has betrayed me with osteoarthritis and sent me to physical therapy on more than one occasion.

My neck? It may not be much to brag about, or a part of my body that my much-younger friends will envy. But this neck - my neck - has proven to be an incredibly valuable part of my anatomy that I simply take for granted most days.

"Yes," I stammer. "My neck is amazing," I finally say.

And I smile a little bit bigger...

In spite of the huge zit on my chin.

- Sherri Kuhn

Sherri Kuhn is a freelance writer, copy editor, blogger, grammar junkie and social media addict. She loves playing with words, editing and writing articles about everything from nail polish to parenting topics. On her blog Old Tweener she writes from the heart - with an occasional side of sarcasm and humor. With a son in college and a daughter in high school, she always has something to write about. Her writing has been featured at Huffington Post, SheKnows, AllParenting, Moonfrye, Mamalode and BlogHer. She was chosen as a cast member for the 2012 Listen to Your Mother show in San Francisco. Sherri lives in Northern California with her family and crazy yellow lab.