We all know someone, or several someone’s, who did everything right. You may even be one of them.
By ‘right’ I mean you listened to your parents, never caused them a moment of worry, hung out with the right kids, excelled in school, excelled in college, got a good job after college, met the right guy, planned the perfect wedding, and lived happily ever after!
I know lots of people like that because they’re all on Facebook boasting their perfect lives. It’s what they want us all to believe.
And then there are the rest of us.
I don’t boast the perfect life on social media because it’s not perfect. Yes, I post pictures of my perfect grandchildren and pictures of amazing vacations, but that’s where it ends.
My childhood was great growing up in a very small farming community but life at home wasn’t great. My parents fought a lot. At age eleven, my dad left the house for good…on Thanksgiving morning.
Appearances was everything to my mother. She wanted to make sure everything still looked picture perfect. She went from housewife to part of the workforce. None of our friends moms had to work. We kept this hush-hush…for as long as possible.
This isn’t what I signed up for. I didn’t want to come home from school and make supper…or do a load of wash…or vacuum and dust. But in order to keep things as ‘normal’ as possible, I did what I was told.
So as we become adults from a broken home versus an in-tact family, are there really differences?
I’m going out on a limb and say yes.
There was no college in my future. It didn’t even pay to try and get good grades. My future back in those days (early seventies) was for me to scrape by the rest of my life. At least that’s how I looked at it.
So while looking for love in all the wrong places to fill some void in my life, I was pregnant and married at seventeen. No money. Blue collar work for my then husband. A baby on the way.
My friends were making college plans or backpacking thru Europe the summer after high school. I was in a dingy apartment with second hand furniture and very little food. But those early years of being responsible for making the meals and doing housework after my dad left paid off. I knew how to cook and keep house.
I worked my way up to office jobs, cleaning houses, and whatever it took to make a better life. There were hiccups along the way but I’m a pretty strong woman.
Today I’m retired, own my own home, travel several times a year, have two successful sons, and have four amazing grandchildren. And I have a husband who has loved me for twenty years…and it hasn’t always been easy living with this strong-willed woman.
My life may not have started out the right way, but it sure is ending up the right way. At least I’m living my truth and don’t have to boast on social media about my perfect life.
Just me knowing how I got where I am today is just right for me.
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