Mourn the childhood you didn't have, accept the one you did. Revisiting the past over and over in your head serves no good purpose. As if reliving the hurt, isolation and loneliness will somehow create your happy ending. But you stand at the end point, your life as it is at this moment. Point A, your childhood, led to Point B, you, an adult, now. Refuse to succumb to the burdens of your history. Learn, love, live.
The only way to right the wrongs you suffered is to live your life according to the path you wish you'd traveled in your youth. Be kind to the children who cross your path, listen to them, acknowledge them. Be thoughtful to all you encounter, as we are all just grown children, products of our past experiences. You must strive to be like the dandelion growing out of the crack in a rock on the hillside. Reach skyward, towards the light of the sun. Don't focus on the rock, leap into the present. You are your own teacher, parent, guardian. Raise yourself to be the person you've always been at your core. Your best self.
You have arrived, you survived; lived to fight another day, but fight the good fight. Don't clutter up the battlefield with what ifs and whys, end the needless battles with yourself. Refuse to let the abusive teachers, unloving parents, mean bullies at school, or random strangers determine who you are now.
You are in control of your perception of the past. No one else. Spin that motherfucker into the self-guided tour that led you to this moment. Rejoice in your blessings. There are many and they multiply once you start acknowledging them. Come out of the darkness into the daylight.
