For those of you who may have already read this post last night/this morning, somehow instead of save a draft I published it. The end was full of errors and mistakes as i was exhausted. I meant to come back and fix this morning! It fits perfectly with the end of the actual post!
I wanted to be normal like everyone else was. I wanted parents who cared about me and talked to me. I wanted a family that ate dinner at the table, together. I wanted a mother who would talk to me about my issues with friends, and my feelings, and boys. I wanted to have nice clothes and shoes. I wanted a birthday party. I wanted to have a nice room, where everything matched. I wanted to have friends over, and I wanted to be asked over to friends’ houses. I wanted us to have a nice, normal car. I wanted to be proud of my family, of my parents, of my siblings. I mean, I thought “this is what everyone else has, why can’t my life be like theirs? Why can’t we be “normal”?”
You see, my family was fairly poor. I grew up in suburban Atlanta. My dad always worked hard, but was not educated. My mother never worked outside the home. She was always there, but never “there”. We rented small houses, which we crammed into. I usually shared a room with my brother who was 4 years younger (I also had a brother 6 years older). Our house was a wreck. Always. And my father, when he was not at work, had a volatile temper, and you never knew what would blow his fuse. I remember going to the store and trying on clothes and putting them on “hold” hoping my dad would give me the money to buy them. Instead I had to take bags from outside the Goodwill trailer. When I was old enough, I got my first job as a bagger for a farmers market, and then as a waitress at a breakfast restaurant. These were the summer before I turned 12. Finally, I could at least look normal, I could buy myself some decent clothes. I still only had a handful of friends who I would ask over to my house and me over to theirs.
When I got pregnant at 15 and married my sweet husband, I think in the back of my mind I thought, “NOW I can have a normal life”. Somehow, my life could never seem normal like everyone elses. Everyone else had it together. Everyone else had a job. Everyone else had a place to live (we lived with my in-laws twice). Crazy thing was, I really thought that everyone else was normal and I was not. And I wanted to do what I could to be normal. So I would put on my normal face and pretend, that everything was ok and I was “cool’. I mean, I just wanted to fit in with everyone who was normal, just like in school.
Now I’m, 40 something and finally came to the conclusion that we ARE ALL NORMAL. We are ALL messed up, we are all cut from the same cloth! I also believe that we, especially as women, do those around us a disservice if we try putting on the fake, perfect face, the normal life. We need to learn to be real in our skin, and in doing so, our authenticty will draw others to us.
That’s all for today! I have Jury Duty 8:30. Have a great Tuesday!
Hi, I’m visiting from SITS. What a lovely, candid blog. I grew up poor as well, and can relate. I’m so glad I came to visit.
NOT JURY DUTY! Ack!!
Your life is fascinating to me. I’ve always thought negatively of girls who get pregnant so young, but here you are and you seem like a perfectly fine person. Normal, even 🙂
LambAround’s latest post: A Flower Delivery MYSTERY
Yeah. 🙂