Just Be You

I really needed to do this layout tonight. The lighting wasn't great so I will replace the photo tomorrow when there is daylight. My daughter who is 12 is having some problems with her "friends" of late. When she broke her leg in mid-February all of her friends just dropped her. If she couldn't run around or walk to McDonalds or the park, they wanted nothing to do with her. She counted down the days until the cast came off, looking forward to hanging out with her friends again. This weekend she spent the night at another friend's house in another town and when I picked her up today she was upset. I thought maybe something happened at Emily's so I asked her about it. She didn't want to come home. :( She didn't want to get back to her normal life at home because all of her friends have turned on her. She's been so depressed lately and has been such a trooper dealing with her broken leg and my heart breaks for her. She's a sweet girl and has always gone along with whatever her friends want. Its never HER way. So to have them ALL turn on her has been a real eye opener for her. She's hurt, she's lonely and I'm sad for her. I had a long talk with her today and told her to just be herself (hence, the title of the page). If these girls don't like her for who she is, then they are not true friends. She listened to everything I told her and then at the end smiled and said "it's ok, mommy we are moving at the end of the school year anyway and I will make new friends". Its true, we are moving....but I wasn't expecting that out of her! She's very good at seeing the big picture...and that big picture for her is a new start, in a new school. So when I finished this layout and showed her she smiled! I snagged the photo off her Facebook page and she had edited it in Picknic and put the caption: "Live the Life you Love; Love the Life you Live". I told her that she needed to remember those words and she smiled and said "I know mom". How did I get such a grounded, good girl? Hopefully this will all blow over...which is what I told her...but even if it doesn't I think she's going to be just fine. (However, you can be sure I will be watching her Facebook page and watching for signs of anything else in her life. I'm NOT going to let my daughter be a statistic. I will ALWAYS be there for her and am so thankful that she feels comfortable talking to me.

I used a sketch from Page Maps for this layout. There is a contest for layouts using this sketch with a sweet prize from Webster's Pages. I used papers from Melissa Frances and October Afternoon, letters by Recollections and Thickers, tickets by Maya Road, "Girl" tag by Junkitz (wow is THAT old!), rose trim...not sure by who as I have several different brands, silver bling border is Recollections and blue bling is by Jolees.