Perfectly Imperfect

I was just a small-town girl, you know the kind of town where everyone knows everything about everyone, or at least they think they do. What they don't know they just make up and spread around to be the truth. Yes, small town living. Got to love it They never seek the actual truth, boy what they would have uncovered had they cared enough to ask. Didn't we all learn, "don't judge a book by its cover"? There is only one person who can judge me... and He has taken care of me so far... So, there I am, a poor little shy girl in this school, in this town. I'm not outgoing, I was pretty withdrawn, and I wasn't a popular girl hanging with the popular crowd. I was whispered about because of the things that were heard concerning my family. Kids' parents telling them about what was in the local paper about so-and-so's parents... ultimately you get the label too. So, you live through the taunting and teasing, obviously. But they never care enough to know the hell you struggle to live through at home. I had found the only way to get through those days was to write about it, through poetry my salvation was awakened. You will read the struggles of a young girl mostly forgotten. Through the years I've learned that those struggles structured me to be the person I am today. It took traveling many rough roads to discover that you must let the past go. Holding on to negative times and negative people only hurts you. I've also learned to forgive, because holding grudges again, only hurts you. Think about it, does the person you hold hatred for actually know you hate them? Probably not, or they just don't care, I doubt they lose a wink of sleep worrying about your feelings. So why waste time, stress and energy on hating anyone, it only hurts you. Don't waste your time and life putting so much of yourself into that negative energy. Once a person lets go of that energy the weight of the world is gone. You feel like a new person. I've never forgotten where I came from. But again, I never chose to be a "product" of my raising either. It seems so many people fall back on playing a victim role, or "I never learned any different" or "That's how I was raised". We all have learned right and wrong from a young age, right? So, can we really use that excuse? Well I chose differently from how I was raised. We all have a choice in how we live our lives. Be something good or be a statistic. The choice is yours. J.L. Kitchen