The Magic of Found Objects

by Maddie Dawson

Life is what you make it. See yourself as a victim, and that’s how it will always be.”

It’s not perfect. But nothing is perfect. It takes character to live with the imperfect facts of your life and to change the things you can change, and to be willing to live with the things you can’t do anything about.

Being a stepmother is never what you think it’s going to be. You have it in your mind that you’re the rescuer, and that even though fairy tales are full of wicked stepmothers, that everyone will see that you are different, because you mean well. And then one day you hear yourself screaming, and everyone’s looking at you with hatred and fear in their eyes, and you realize that you never can afford to get even one thing wrong. You’re not the real mom, and nobody gives you the benefit of the doubt.”