Your comments always make me think. It's interesting to look back at some of this stuff 50 years later. I wasn't great; just a miserable child trying to follow rules I couldn't live with. I chose the high road because there were limits to what I could do to defy my mother, and I needed desperately to get away from her. I never seriously considered running away from home, although that's what I was trying to do. Probably what kept me safe was that my only drug of choice is food. I don't have to tell you–I'm still fighting that battle. Now I know I would have been much better off if I had been going toward something, instead of running away. It took be the better part of 60 years to learn that one.
Thanks for writing.
100 Books Before I Die 
Yeah. You never would have gotten through school.
Gad! I feel so shallow. At 15 I wanted to be fiery like Yvonne DeCarlo–chose a college b/c the school principal said I should and 4 of my guy buddies were going there; the only future in journalism (my choice) was writing for women’s pages so took elem educ to get 3 months off every year.
I guess with no reason to run, I just skipped my way through life
unaware. If only I had the boobs of Yvonne DeCarlo and the long dark hair I know it would have all been so different.
Sigh…..
You’re lucky; I’ll bet millions of people never figure that out during their whole lifetime. What I like about writing is how it helps me figure things out even when no one else may know it.
Still, when we are that young, any decision we make that moves us toward education is a winner. You may think you were running away from your mother as I was running away from my mother’s expectations, but you ended up running toward a new life.