The Wallflower

Small town primary school function night. I'm here with my kid. He's a social kinda guy. I'm not. I hope you're cool with that. It's not that I don't like you. Not that I'm a weirdo. I just want to blend in, but it seems that not mixing it up makes me feel like I'm standing out. Can't win.

I grew up in a small town like this one. In schools like this one. With people like this with habits like this. Good town, good schools, good people. But there's something discomfortingly familiar about it all. I see the beauty in the connections people make. Feel the love for my kid from people I don't know. That's cool, real cool. But there's other things that feel wrong to me, these things keep me up against the wall.

Some parents put their kids in the background, and make everything about them. I'm afraid of doing this to my kid. I don't want to compete. I don't want to get caught up in kid vs kid vs teacher dramatics. I want to support my kid, to be his own person. So, I want to be present but invisible.

Tough one.