Opening the Door to Untold Stories and New Horizons

I have spent a lot of time reflecting on one quiet truth that we care leavers have sometimes grown up Othering ourselves. Not because we want to. Not because we believe we are less than. But because we come from systems where being “different” is how we were identified, described, and often even supported and somewhere along the line, we started to believe it. That our pain was unusual. That our gaps were greater. That our stories needed to be hidden or packaged just right to be accepted. This blog is not about blaming others. It's about understanding ourselves. It’s about affirming that while care experience is unique, we must also remember: life in families isn’t free from struggle either. So how we begin Othering ourselves Growing up in care, whether it was foster care, institutional care, or kinship care meant we learned to define ourselves in relation to a system - case files, staff roles, checklists, transitions, and assessments. We often heard “ These are your special needs....