My Sister Told Me to Clean Her Shoes at the Country Club. I Threw Them Away and Drove Home. Weeks Later, I Had 49 Missed Calls.

was my most reliable path to being valued. If I couldn’t be charming like Amanda or commanding like Mom, I could at least be dependable. I could be the person who absorbed the dysfunction so everyone else could pretend we were normal.

High school was survivable because I was good at math and science, subjects where there were right answers and wrong continue reading …