My Life Was Never Meant To Be Normal

Sometimes, I forget

The Holler I grew up in: Photo by author

I often think my life is normal until I tell someone about it. Maybe that’s because I have never had a ¨normal¨ life. So, for me, a normal life is a non-normal life. Right?

What is normal anyway?? Who made the rules of life? But as a kid, it was more complicated; at least, I thought so.

I remember one time I made a friend in 5th grade. She lived in town with her mom. She was an only child to divorced parents. We became best friends instantly, and I finally got the courage to invite her to my house.

I never invited people to my house. I mean, I had friends. But they were family friends — you know, the friends you met because your parents were friends. So they would come over all the time, and we would go to their house all the time.

Where I grew up, abandoned since I lived there: photo by author

However, this girl was my first nonfamily friend.

I was so anxious.

Even as a little girl, I knew my life and how we lived was different. After all, we did not have running water or a toilet inside the house, while everyone else I knew had a bathroom. We heated our water on the stove and took baths in a…