With Tim posting his farewell letter today, hopefully this isn't too depressing. I return back to Minneapolis late Friday evening. It's hard to say that, during this experience, that I haven't missed home. This is the first time that I've genuinely been homesick, and possibly the longest time I've ever been away from home. There's been a variety of experiences, good and bad, that I've experienced here. Coming to terms with being a foster child is something I'd like to say I have done, but over the course of this experience, I started to question that in a particular instance. I don't necessarily walk around saying, "I'm proud to be a foster child." I'm not NOT proud, don't get me wrong. However, I really despise labels, as society often manipulates these to create a false image of who you are. So, here I am, on this internship, publicly talking about my experience in the foster care system. I am essentially being branded as a foster child. It was the first time where I was putting myself out there as a foster child. I feared that people would only see me as such. Luckily, (I don't think) that's the case. I'm proud to be the person who I am today. I don't like saying I'm proud to be X,Y, or Z because these respective traits do not represent me as a whole. However, this does not mean that I am ashamed of my past. I'm proud to say that, without the foster care system, I would likely not be where I am today. I would not have the stability or happiness that I now have. However, I am not proud to be JUST a foster child, because I am much more than just that. I am a runner. a gamer. an advocate. a music junkie. a blogger. an all-around weirdo. ...and a foster child, too.