The Things We Learn With Time

Don't worry, I wont plague you with another poem. LOL!! This is just something I've recently been thinking about and needed to put into words.

I've lived far longer than my 30 years would have you think. I've been through a great deal in my life and though I'm an adult and now live a comfortable, peaceful life I cant help but think about the years past.

When I was a kid, I was a foster child. I moved MANY times, and had to transfer schools on countless occasions. I was always 'the new girl'. I lived in many small towns, and they truly do live up to their reputations as 'word travels fast'. Everyone knew everyone and in the predicament that I was ALWAYS in, I ASSUMED that everyone knew who I was, and what I was.

I never said a word to anyone. I was too afraid. They would look at me with their heads bowed like they felt bad for me, but yet, they wouldn't talk to me. The small few who did, I hold in my heart forever. But those who did not always made me feel small. Its those people I've recently been thinking about.

Now that I'm grown, I've begun to reconnect a bit with long lost friends, and even acquaintances. And only now am I realizing, they didn't know. I was SHOCKED to find out that they never actually knew who I was, or where I came from. They knew I was different. I was not French Canadian as everyone else was. And I showed up as a young girl rather than growing up with them.

My story was a mystery to them, and all this time I'd been thinking the worst of them for shunning me, when in all actuality, I was shunning them. For that I apologize. I didn't know.

I've recently discussed this with several of those people. I must give them credit for their understanding and continued smiles. Now they're finding comfort in putting the puzzle pieces together, as it makes their understanding of me far more easy to read. LOL!!

I guess the moral of all this is a simple one...and one I should have known all along. 'Never Judge A Book By It's Cover'. You never really know whats written within its pages.