I had the utter pleasure of having many friends in my early life, two BFFs, and several other wonderful young people in my life. I also had the best parents God could've ever designed just for me. And I had a brother who teased me unmercifully while we were young but became a super big brother when he got older (he was 9 years older than me).
But then there was 7th grade. It was junior high school then. And to this day I claim it as being the worst year of my life. I got the worst haircut of my life - even wore a scarf to school to try to cover it. I had no classes with my BFFs. I was in an "accelerated" math class which to this day I have no idea why and that singular class began the terrible habit of biting my fingernails which I still do this many years later! Yes, I still had friends, but they were changing, and it seemed they suddenly all wanted to grow up - which I distinctly did not and was unprepared for leaving a blissful childhood. First inklings of "misfit."
With 7th grade behind me, this horse crazy girl and her family moved from the closeness of her two BFFs farther north of my childhood home - which, when you don't drive, seems like a ridiculous distance away - and began the process of finding new friends which wasn't really that difficult. There were plenty of them to be found. And so the growing up process continued through high school.
Then my first year at the University of Washington began. That was another year of interesting - and some exciting - changes which ultimately decided for me that I was done/finished with school. I didn't want to go to college, but my parents wanted it for me. I owed them to make the effort. The educational highlights were an A in playwriting and an A in one of my English classes. The other highlights were a flurry of quickly established and quickly adjourned new friends. College was a misfit for me.
The next chapter involved a mission to travel to Great Britain and Europe, so I set to work in retail after talking a friend into going with me. She too got a job, and we worked for a year while we saved the necessary funds to travel and organized our trip. When our nearly 3-month adventure to foreign lands came to a close, I felt lost. Floundered.
Finally, a series of events led me to Longacres Racetrack. It felt like finding my niche. But, alas, I was a misfit. A city girl learning the ropes of racetrack life. An outsider. A few people to the end of over 30 years there, me having fully participated in the process of horse racing, continued to view me as an outsider. A misfit.
Skip ahead all those years and after finally doing the only other thing I was designed to do, I followed the Lord's instructions to write my first novel. Then another which led me to into the search for a publisher, writers conferences, contacts, only to learn that I was a misfit in my chosen genre.
The sole and soul place I've found where I am not a misfit is within the love of the Lord God Almighty, the family He's given me, and the friends I've made over the years who, though much different, don't consider me a misfit. There is no thanking Him enough for all of those things.
Father, I know our ultimate home is with you. It still can be puzzling to experience that misfit feeling when you know you're doing what you're supposed to do. But I thank you for watching over me and eventually rescuing me from myself. Thank you is never enough. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.