For my entire childhood, I believe I was taught to be judgemental of certain types of people. If there were kids in my classes who acted up, they were believed to be "bad news"...stay away from them. If a teenager in high school did drugs, had sex, or partied, they were people I was thought would bring me down and cause me to become unsuccessful. I believe that for the first 22 years of my life, I was terrified of some pretty good people. I looked at people and thought you are NOT going to bring me down. At the age of 23, I had a break through. I started life on my own. I cannot claim that my parents were not there to catch me if I fell, but I actually started meeting other "kinds" of people outside of my "circle of comfort." I graduated from a Christian University, broke up with my extremely conservative boyfriend, and moved out of the house that my parents owned. For the next three years, I met a plethora of different kinds of people. I partied hard, worked hard, and lived hard. I never considered myself unsuccessful, and I never found myself in trouble. These people I was told to stay away from I now consider to be my best friends. I married a man that my parents would have done everything they could to keep me away from when I was a teenager. This man works hard everyday to support and keep his family together. He has a spirit about him that intices almost every person he comes to know. My husband wakes up with a smile on his face and goes to bed with a smile on his face. He has been the best gift of my life and has given me a daughter and a son that helps me believe that my life has turned out to be successful!! (Let that Success keep coming)
