The best thing my mom ever did for me was to always make me face my truths even when I tried my best to avoid it. From the beginning, my mom was a good example for me. She told me I was adopted. That was a truth I know she didn’t enjoy facing however, she knew she had to do right by me and let me know. That became my truth and then of course something I dealt with for the rest of my life. My mom then made me face my truths when I went to college. She sat me down and asked me if I was going to be serious about school and let me know she had doubts. It made me mad that she thought she knew me well enough to determine that. I thought to myself that she didn’t know me and I’d prove her wrong. Well, less than a year later, halfway into my 2nd semester away at school, I failed out and had to come home. I hid from the truth that I wasn’t ready for that much freedom that soon. When I came home my parents cut me off financially and I had to face the fact that I had screwed up. Then I had to pick myself back up with the lessons learned and do better, which I did. I had to accept my truth, learn from it and move on. There are some adoptees who aren’t as lucky as I was, having a wonderful adoptive family and subsequently finding a wonderful birth mother. Some adoptee’s truths are that their adoptive family isn’t very loving or that they find out the birth parents aren’t good people. These are hurtful truths that can affect your whole life and the way you live it. Avoiding the truth hurts you now and in the future. Burying it will allow you to function everyday but someday it will bubble to the surface and you’ll be forced to face it. Don’t hide from your truth, face it (even if you need therapy to do so), learn from it and move on with a big huge smile on your face and no fear or pain in your heart.