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The Things We Miss Out On
Today, as I sit at a little shop, in a little town in the Midwest, I watch the women go up and down the stairs. They come in with their moms, their little girls, their sisters, their friends.
Today, they are drinking mimosas. Another Open House event is being hosted. As exciting as all of that is, there is a sense of loss that overtakes me. It overtakes me when I see a mom come in, holding the hand of her little girl. I overtakes me when I see a grandma, a mother, and a little girl come in together; the stroller with all the frills and the matching outfits.
I feel like an outsider often. Do you? Like there is so much of life that has passed by, and I wasn’t privileged enough to participate in it. I fashioned my life in a way that protected me from feeling this every day. I raised and homeschooled my children on a small farm in the middle of nowhere; where our lack of money would not be so apparent every day.
Luckily, my parents bought them nice clothes and a working vehicle for me. Luckily, the kids never felt the pinch and the stress of financial instability until they were older. Luckily, there were scholarships for children’s choir, robotics, and dance. They had incredible opportunities. And now, they are doing their lives. They are growing, making money, going to school, finding the open door to the world to be very exciting and enlivening.