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You Are Not Better Than Me!

By Teresa Smeigh 2019

In the 4th grade, I wanted to play the trumpet. My parents arranged a payment plan for the trumpet and I started lessons. The teacher didn’t want to teach me because I was a girl. The worst part is that she was a sewing teacher and not a real music teacher anyhow.

Each year there was a different teacher. A few years later my brother decides he wants to play as well. He got his trumpet and I was continuously made to play in front of all of my parents’ friends when they came to visit. I hated to perform in front of people like that. I was still just learning and it was embarrassing.

And then the worst thing happened. My parents actually told me that my brother was better than me. I was so upset and my self-esteem suffered a huge hit. It ruined playing the trumpet for me. They never got it.

I told them when I was about 50 that what they did was hurtful. My mom said we wouldn’t have done something like that. Finally, she apologized. It didn’t help much, but better than nothing.

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Tessa –

Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses, also a devout Christian

Author – http://www.finallyawriter.com (this blog contains my old work mostly although occasionally I do add something new here), new work is mainly on this blog http://www.tessacandoit.com