Yesterday I got kicked emotionally in my genes. Not just my gut, but my genes. Allow me to explain.
I was adopted at the age of 6. My adoptive parents certainly loved me, but were nothing like me. My adoptive mom is still alive and I love her to no end, but again, our personalities were never the same. It was the source of constant misunderstanding and typical strife for any kid and parent.
My adoptive mom and dad were both teachers raised with the "kids should be seen but not heard". That did not match my sensitivity growing up and neither they or I understood why we didn't get along, even though, like I said, I never thought they didn't love me.
Compile that with being an only child on a street full of bullies and being at a school where I was endlessly picked on. I had no real friends until high school and even now I struggle with my current boss who doesn't understand his own bullying of others including me.
So fast forward to the mid 90s after 30 years of separation from my biological family when I finally met them. When I did everything made sense to me as to why I was the way I was because my sister and brother displayed the same behaviors as I did.
Fast forward to yesterday. My sister last month told me she had submitted a poem to a context and it got published. The topic, being bullied, feeling tossed aside, feeling invisible. For whatever reason it didn't hit me when I first read it, but yesterday when I read it I felt like I was looking in a mirror. I really don't cry that much over literature, but I have never cried more than I did yesterday.
So for those who'd like to read her poem click on the link in my sig, go to the last page and look for her poem "In Their Own Minds" and above that one was my response after reading it, before I got permission from her to add it to my thread, my poem is called "From The Same Cloth".
I was adopted at the age of 6. My adoptive parents certainly loved me, but were nothing like me. My adoptive mom is still alive and I love her to no end, but again, our personalities were never the same. It was the source of constant misunderstanding and typical strife for any kid and parent.
My adoptive mom and dad were both teachers raised with the "kids should be seen but not heard". That did not match my sensitivity growing up and neither they or I understood why we didn't get along, even though, like I said, I never thought they didn't love me.
Compile that with being an only child on a street full of bullies and being at a school where I was endlessly picked on. I had no real friends until high school and even now I struggle with my current boss who doesn't understand his own bullying of others including me.
So fast forward to the mid 90s after 30 years of separation from my biological family when I finally met them. When I did everything made sense to me as to why I was the way I was because my sister and brother displayed the same behaviors as I did.
Fast forward to yesterday. My sister last month told me she had submitted a poem to a context and it got published. The topic, being bullied, feeling tossed aside, feeling invisible. For whatever reason it didn't hit me when I first read it, but yesterday when I read it I felt like I was looking in a mirror. I really don't cry that much over literature, but I have never cried more than I did yesterday.
So for those who'd like to read her poem click on the link in my sig, go to the last page and look for her poem "In Their Own Minds" and above that one was my response after reading it, before I got permission from her to add it to my thread, my poem is called "From The Same Cloth".
