Have you ever looked at someone, felt a twinge of jealousy and thought, “Boy, do they have it made!” To the casual observer, the lives of some people look enviably perfect.
You might look at the gorgeous woman with flawless complexion and perfect figure who attracts the attention of every man in the room and you think, “Must be nice.”
Or maybe you watched the rich kid you went to school with whose parents showered him or her with every material possession a teen could want, and thought, “Wish it was me.”
Perhaps you envied the person who was the life of every party, the one everyone wanted as a friend, and you secretly longed to have so much charisma.
You might have envied what you saw on the outside, but did you ever stop to wonder what was going on behind the scenes of their lives? That gorgeous woman might be the loneliest person you ever met because no one looks beneath the surface and sees the woman inside. The rich kid with everything might have all the material possessions he wants at his disposal, but what he really longs for is his parents’ undivided attention. And the life of the party may be making jokes to cover deep insecurities and pain in his heart.
As I’ve walked through life, I’ve learned no one has a perfect life, and everyone struggles with something. Some people just hide it better than others. When I wrote “No Place Like Motorhome” I wanted to convey this concept through the story.
When Marc meets Darcy, he sees a picture-perfect, spoiled rich girl who shows no interest in getting to know him, presumably because he is beneath her. As he gets to know her, he’s embarrassed at how wrong his initial assessment of her was. Behavior that he attributed to snobbishness actually stems from deep and painful traumas she experienced as a child. Her standoffish attitude isn’t prompted by a feeling of superiority, but well-founded distrust of strangers and fear of the unknown. Darcy has not been spoiled by her parents, but in fact, they have been overly-protective of her because of the traumatic experiences she endured in her past. When Marc finally sees the woman behind the perfectly manicured, cool-and-collected exterior Darcy projects, he realizes she is just as human as anyone else in his life.
So don’t be too hasty to judge someone based on superficial assessments or brief encounters. You never know what they are dealing with in the background of their lives.
Until next time, Happy Reading!
~ Lisa