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‘Older’ attitudes drove youth from Trail

I am a former resident of Trail and a relative wanted me to read your recent letter from Lana and Dan Rodlie in your Letters to the Editor column (Trail has done a lot to make this a beautiful place to live - April 26).

As a youth and through my teenage years I felt completely unaccepted by the older population of Trail.

They constantly made me feel as if I didn’t belong because of the clothes I wore and that I had piercings. Basically they pinned me as a bad egg that as she so pleasantly put it “would end up with four walls of my own” one day.

No one ever took the time or consideration to see the real me, only the version they had made up for me. I was interested in the arts, drama, and music.

I volunteered and did good things that no one ever knew about because to them I was invisible.

On a regular basis I felt segregated because I wasn’t interested in organized sports and I asked my teachers for help in funding for drama and art classes but they said it all went to the sports programs, so it’s not that easy for someone in Trail who doesn’t want to be an athlete, a scout, or a church or group volunteer.

I felt so bad on a regular basis that I left Trail as soon as I graduated and never looked back and it was because of women and men like this in Trail who label and stab at kids who aren’t like them that I am actually proud to tell people where I live now.....IN NELSON! Where I don’t get judged by my appearance and people are accepting and want to hear a young person’s input even if it doesn’t match their own views.

Amanda Murdoch

Nelson