for the record....
i was reminiscing today thinking back to my HS years.  and it dawned on me, that's where it all started
high school.  started what you ask?  well, started calling things as i saw them.  so yeah, been at it for years.  perhaps it started even earlier, jr high even i'm not really sure i just know that i've had a knack for seeing things in their true light.  and when i say things i probably mean people for who they are.  for whatever the reason, it's as though i see through them.

my earliest recollection of this occurring is with my parents.  i think i was the only one not shocked when the divorce occurred.  what i was shocked about, or perhaps the best description of what i felt was disappointment, was the manner in which the end of the marriage came to be.  those details brought out the skeptic in me with regard to people.  you see lesson number one was this...people, even those who are suppose to love you unconditionally can: lie, cheat, sneak, lie, fake it, lie, sneak, all the while allowing you, and others believe otherwise.  LESSON: if the very people who brought you into this world will hurt you and be dishonest, don't be surprised if/when others do the same.  LESSON: outward image must be maintained as long as possible.

*i too lied and put up fronts.  it's what i knew.  for the truths were ugly.

senior year, feeling all full of my senior, i'm about to graduate and know far more than you self I embarked on the beginning stages of calling it as i see it.  and ....for the record i started with the principal.  why? well, i bore witness to him telling a lie.  one story to the adults and a completely different story to the student body.  and so it began.

some years later i returned to my Alma mater and little had changed.  only this time teachers spoke up and out appalled at the lies and cover ups and feeling like they were with out a voice so i spoke up.  and again i witnessed the same principal speak a hurtful untruth, telling a young man he wasn't to speak and wasn't worth hearing as nobody wanted to hear anything he had to say...i was incensed!  to say the least.  LESSON: people lie.  LESSON: people don't have to be accepting of those lies.

*it is now that it occurs to me that i don't much care for liars, cheaters, and certainly not at the expense of kids.

and here we are, in the more recent past i've encountered more of the same and have approached it in the only manner i'm comfortable with.  sadly it too has often been at the expense of the child. LESSON: liars don't like being called out.  LESSON: if you're not forthwith, you tend to be deceptive.  LESSON: one has little fear in a creative lie and much to fear in an ugly truth.

*i'm not one to look the other way, take one for the team, buy into mans greater good...

so, i am what i am and only expect such from others.  no airs, pretense, or falsehoods....rather an open book.  i question most everything, and most everyone until i feel comfortable.  i trust and respect from the get go, but should it be lost or tampered with then i'm done.  i don't chase after anything.  appreciate where i am in life and those who are with me as well as those who are not.  i love unconditionally.  and for those i don't like .... i insist that i, at any given time, can tell you 3 kind things about them.

*i'm not perfect, better than anyone or less than another.  i'm where i'm suppose to be and daily working to be better at being me....the me God intended me to be.

so odds are ..... if there's an elephant in the room and you don't seem to notice i'll point it out.  it's just who i am.  no apologies...