an adoptee pain point

Ah yes, the ol' joke about how the person must be adopted because they're so different from the rest of the family... so different, in fact, that they couldn't possibly belong with the rest of them.

You're not one of us. Cue laugh track!

Hilarious.

So funny that it makes me want to literally punch the person who wrote the line in the face. And then punch anyone else involved who allowed it to make to air.

Listen, I'm adopted. It's really complicated... the experience, the feelings, the thoughts... it all has so many layers that it's really hard to understand them all. Even more so, it's harder to feel comfortable with it all; to feel comfortable with yourself and who you are.

I have a great family, and an overall good adoption experience but, adoption - and being an adoptee - is not a "thing" that can be summed up with a binary "good" or "bad". Like I said, it's really complicated.

I don't (publicly) write about it because I still struggle to understand a lot of things around it. Every adoptee has a different experience, a different story, and a different set of feelings that they need to work to understand. Each adoptee will react differently to things like this. Some might even find that joke funny.

That is 100% valid and acceptable.

It. Is. Complex.

I have my own pain points. I have my own triggers.

That ol' joke? Yeah, that's a trigger. Yes, it's a pain point.