Remember that oyster that I pretended to enjoy in hopes you would feel connection to me, love me, accept me as an intellectual 10 year old. Interesting how that is. I was forced to be an adult, I assimilated to every aspect that I could... down to the foods that you modeled were appropriate for little adults such as myself. I thought I understood what this word "adult" meant by your behavior. It meant that I couldn't actually be anything I wanted. It meant that I would be chewed and spit out just as if that little pearl was me. As I sat that pearl in the small plate that accompanied my oyster shells, I also sat aside my potential. I didn't understand it yet but that pearl was in fact what you told me I was.