LETTER: Sad Little Skinny Child

I’ve always been alone and big. No matter how I tried to “manage” myself, I stayed big.

By the end of 6th grade I was alone and the size of a college girl, and one of those girls began to send the hand-me-downs to my mom for me. Clothes made for 11-yr-olds just wouldn’t go on me. As a result, I dressed above my pay grade, as well as my parents’ pay grade.

Fast forward 24 years. I came out here to care for my Grandma, with about four changes of clothes, and one pair of tennis shoes. Still heavy after years of drug use. A friend recently asked me about being a homeless druggie, and heavy at the same time. I have no answer.

Today on the “news”, the lead story is about a group of children, who are so addicted to each others input over the internet, that a 6-hr Facebook shutdown destroyed them so completely that one of them took his own life.

Where are the parents? Where are these children’s real-life friends? Who is paying the internet bill and not reading what’s on it? Why isn’t one of them telling these children that their screens are filled with hype, deception, and lies.

It’s at this point in my life that I’m thankful, that when I was a child, having long long hair, I knew that at no time would my hair grow long enough to hang out of the window so I could escape my captors. That’s a fairy tale.

Internet is filled with perfect vacations and bedroom remodels. Fantasy. It’s a fairy tale too. It’s like back when we used to live in real life, we didn’t photograph the measles we got and the beatings we endured.

Whereas back then we were overly parented, the pendulum has swung too far the other way now. Some of today’s children need somebody to search through their sock drawer.

Esther Ramos
Logandale