I am a blonde hair, brown eyed girl in a family of brown hair, blue eye people. Growing up, in school and in other activities, people always wondered why my parents, my brother and my sister had a different last name. It was not something I was comfortable discussing with others, but the truth was that I was being raised by my aunt. While my aunt took me in at a very young age, there was always a part of me that felt like an outsider looking in - in a sentence - I felt like Cinderella.

Before Cinderella went to the ball, met her prince, and found her happily ever after, she had to struggle to find her place amongst her family and in society. My birth parents were unable to provide me with a safe and stable home. I struggled with anger and frustration at them for their inability to be there for me as a parent should be. I also struggled with feelings of insecurity in the family I was part of. On one hand, I was with blood relatives who took me in and have given what from the outside looking in seemed like a safe and secure home; on the other, I always felt like I did not belong and that I was child that no one wanted. This family was never accepting of who I was. The outsider who did not belong, and they made sure to drive the feeling of sadness into my very being. I never saw rags to riches like cinderella, yet I still have time to find Prince Charming, or rediscover the world in a light that doesn’t seem so unloving. I’m just waiting for my glass slipper moment.