Happy Halloween

Personally it doesn't really feel much like Halloween. I guess it's because I don't have children to take trick-or-treating, and I'm not surrounded by my friends who are in love with dressing up and planning our costumes. I've never been a big Halloween fan anyhow, so this doesn't bother me too much. Weather wise, it does feel like fall, and like I've mentioned before, fall is my absolute favorite! Today I walked to the park, spread my towel out onto the wet grass, and laid down beneath the sun. Red, orange, and yellow leaves crunched underneath me, children laughed while swinging and sliding on the playground, and dogs greeted me with their wet noses and wagging tails. I laid out for about an hour and read my book and chatted with my daddy. I watched a mom and dad try to teach their little girl the simplicity of swinging. Who knew it was so complicated in a young child's mind? "Honey, extend your legs, OK now bend them! Yep, extend, bend, extend, bend, good job!" Meanwhile the girl was getting it all mixed up until she finally just kicked her legs back and forth until the swing slowed down so much and she needed a push. It's so funny how something like that is so simple, but we wouldn't know how to do it without the guidance of our parents. I'm sure in the end we could've figured it out on our own, but how much easier is it with mom and dad reminding you to "bend and extend"?

I have incredible parents. Everyone knows that, and everyone would agree with how amazing they are. Recently I had an old friend pop back into my life. He unfortunately wasn't blessed with parents like most of us are. Things haven't been so easy for him in life and he's made some really awful decisions which have led him to be where none of us want to end up. Now, I've always been the one to not have much pity on people when they say they're screwed up from coming from a broken home. I've always believed, and still do to a point, that you're an adult, you have the choice to better your life, but lately I've had the harsh realization that I'm a very fortunate person, unlike a lot of people I know. I see that pattern in my friends who come from abusive homes, whore moms, or extreme poverty, and most of the irrational behavior doesn't start when they're an "adult" and can make their life changing decisions. It starts when they're in their teens and think it's OK to behave the way they do, until they finally get caught, which tends to be when they're an adult. My friend, not knowing how he's affected me, was a very close friend when I was younger. I haven't seen him in years but have heard plenty of the rumors of what he's been up to. While most of them were true, his story, like everyone else's, has a reason. Now I'm not saying he can put the blame game on his poverty-stricken mom, who sometimes didn't have enough food to feed him and never attended PTA meetings or soccer games, or the fact that he'll never know his dad, just the men who came in and out of his life so often as a kid and never cared if he was around or not. BUT, when I place my feet in his shoes and replace that lifestyle with the one I had growing up that involved being told I was loved every day, and having parents involved with my school and personal life, I can't help but think I wouldn't have turned out as good as I did. I hate that people will always judge him as a criminal without knowing his background. Without knowing how sweet of a boy he was when I was 14 and he was 16, and how he's the boy that I will always remember as someone who impacted my life for the better.