
Everyone here, um, is so nice. It’s really, really great. But really, really different. I, um… I don’t really, kinda, know how to explain it? It’s, um, nice. To be around so many people? And to talk to them?… I guess, though, that that’s sort of normal, huh…
I, um. I lived with my mother, father, and my brother. Mother and Father, um, have really high expectations, I guess? Or, had, I guess, since I’m not there anymore. But, it was all work work work! Stuff like, y’know, like that. Punishment if, um, you weren’t excelling in class… Things like that. Really, um… Really not good punishment. And I, y’know. Never excelled when it, er, came to school.
They were really, y’know. Strict. No, um, talking. Around them? Unless we were, er, addressed first. And I had to dress a certain way. That I, um, really didn’t like. I got grounded a lot.
I, uh, never really had any friends… Um, I had a lot to do after school, so I could never, y’know. Go out to see them, or anything, and no one was allowed over to the house… I had a LOT to do…
Um, piano lessons, cello lessons, viola lessons… Swimming lessons, um, dancing and cooking classes… I had football, too, but, um, I was really bad at that. I was, um, really bad at everything, actually, but the football was the worst.
I used to just, um, skip the classes. Because when I went, I, uh, would get hit in the face with the ball, and fall down, and dumb stuff like, y’know. Like that. But, um, eventually, my parents found out. That I’d been skipping the classes? They wereso mad.
And my brother, um, my brother was even worse. He just… just seemed to, kinda, hate me. I don’t really know why, but he did. So I, um, tried to avoid him…
So, uh, with all of that, I’ve never been very, um, social. I’m not great at, er, talking, or… anything like that, I guess. But, that’s why I said that it’s really, really different, here. Everyone is, um, so nice to me… And they, um, talk to me, and smile, and laugh, and do what they want to. And I can do what I want to, and talk to them, and smile and laugh too! And it doesn’t feel like, um, like anyone’s disappointed in me. It feels like… like it’s okay that I want to read mystery novels instead of ballroom dancing, or somethingstupidlike that. Like, um, I’m not disgusting, for wanting to wear sneakers.
It kind of feels like, um, what you’d think a family would feel like? Like friends, and kind of like, um, belonging? Like not having to be scared. Or really, like not having to be anything. Like you can just be, and that’s okay. And you’re not in anyone’s way, or a bother, or bad… And it’s really, really nice.

And, um, I’m even stuttering less!