stereotypes much?

I love Legally Blonde, but I have a serious problem with stereotypical blondes:

- Fake, blonde, long hair
- Nails did
- "Like" everything! (Instagram, "totally's", etc.)
- Think school is a fashion show
- BFF lemmings
- Never had or needed a job
- Hearts on everything

Before I vomit, I will tell you that my mother is a blonde, but does not possess any of the characteristics of the elementary to high school nightmares I am describing. I will limit my horror story telling and say that I experienced and witnessed racism and straight up sociopathic bullying at the hands of these kinds of blondes growing up. The reason for my distaste is due to two things: poor choices of others and my allowing those choices to affect my life and views.

Change of pace: Being "old for my age" is a blessing and curse I have consciously dealt with. I have either been a role model for peers that were actually my age or someone for whom it was "just too bad you're not older". Ugh. The frustrations were endless so I figured that I was meant to lift up the weight of those less mature than I by dumbing or pulling myself down. (Note: do not try that at home). I couldn't get jobs I wanted because it was literally illegal for me to even work, let alone serve booze. I couldn't hang out with the people I wanted because it was also socially unacceptable. So I was left with the rest of the 12-year-olds whose concerns were that Junior High was scary and boys were becoming cute.

Again, not going to go into detail on teenage trauma, but I can say that I became a magnet for poor choices. Within 18 months of leaving elementary school I had had my heart broken, broken hearts, traumatized my body, experienced death of loved ones and discovered that learning the hard way was for dummies. I used writing as a way to express what I now know to be very mature experiences in a life that wasn't yet "mature". At my lowest point, I realized that up was much more desirable than staying in the down I was in. Sure, I still had my frustrations of being young and mature, but MAN was I done doing everything I was doing just because young people do that sort of thing.

This was when I came to know that learning from other's mistakes is the greatest blessing God could give me. I'm not claiming that my experiences were more harsh than anyone else. But I can tell you that I felt and still sometimes feel that my life has been far less traumatic than most. This has been my crutch for quite some time: if my life is not as rough as most people's, I have no reason to feel sad, angry or hurt. Though this mindset is a desirable alternative to "woe is me", it can still be devastating. I didn't allow myself to accept and take pride in what my experiences had made me feel and who I had become as a result of that.

Now to the point: My life is wonderful because God has given me life, people and experiences that I have chosen to embrace. Good, bad, devastating, ironic or strange, the result that is my life is because I chose to react in a certain way. Those reactions are mine. I own them. I am proud of them. Not accepting someone else's reaction as my own, like bullying blondes in retaliation or living as a "normal person my age" would is God-given gift and a strength that I am proud to have built. Too often I judge, though I believe we are fully capable of minimizing those judgments. No more can my life be wasted on anger towards people that are no longer a part of my life. I choose. If I take a second to see stereotypes as a warning for myself and others, I can build friendships with 12 and 80-year-olds, be deliriously happy and successful at any age, in my own eyes and the eyes of others, and even watch a dumb blonde graduate at the top of her class from Harvard Law.