the outsider

A man of many companions may come to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

PROVERBS 18:24

When I was seven, my brother and I went to live with my aunt and uncle. It was emotional leaving my dad, but living with my aunt and uncle didn’t feel odd because they happily took us in. My aunt was a teacher in a small private Christian school when I came, so instead of going to public school like I was used to doing, I went to the private school she taught at. I became friends with four girls in particular during this time, but I found it hard to fit in because they had known each other for a long time. By the time I was a teenager, I felt even more like an outsider, even though I was told repeatedly that I was nowhere near that. But I’m the only one who hasn’t grown up with my parents, and I probably had the hardest background as a kid, so it can be easy for me to feel left out. But I don’t let that depress me. I have realized recently that the differences between my friends and me do not have to be a problem. With God’s help, what makes me different from my friends doesn’t have to hold me back.

Virginia MacKinnon, 15, Jonathan Edwards Academy, Turners Falls, MA

Sometimes I think no one understands me …
that I’m all alone. But thanks to You, Jesus, I never am.