Adopted

I don't know what to post tonight, so I will tell you about how I go to extremes. You know Billy Joel? He has a song called "I go to Extremes" that I think describes me pretty well. I tend to defiantly go to extremes in almost everything. I do it sometimes just to prove to people that I am not who they think I am. When people assume something about me I try to prove them wrong. It bugs me like none other when people make assumptions, even if it is right, why do you think that you know? I have noticed that a lot with being adopted. Today in church my mom talked about my adoption for something, and everyone kept looking at me and after this girl came up and hugged me and said that you would never know. This didn't bug me, like at all, but it reminded me of what I have heard people assume. It almost always starts out with, "I don't want to offend you, but..." or, "So.. wait, never mind, I don't want to make you upset," or something along those lines. If you have said one of these then please don't be offended. Here are some of the things I have heard:
"Don't take this personally, but are your parents' murders?"
"You're adopted? You don't seem quiet or antisocial at all!"
"Umm... don't be offended, but what was the orphanage like?" (I am not an orphan FYI)
"But you don't seem adopted at all, you can't even tell!"
"Okay, but don't be offended... I was going to say that you must be adopted because your mom didn't love you."
I like these quotes because they are real and they show how little people know. I also have noticed from this and other things that have been said that being adopted is like a bad thing. I want to tell people, "Well, that just shows that my parents who I am living with are good have shown that they are good and can take care of me, your parents did not, they could be crappy and you are stuck with them, no guarantee that they are good like mine." Okay, I have only wanted to say that to the your-mom-must-not-love-you one, but still. Why is it a bad thing that I am adopted? Why is that to be pitied and looked down upon? It is not always, but really, why?! Maybe my parents don't have to both be dead or have murdered someone for me to be adopted! Also everyone assumes that it just kills me to even say it, but it really doesn't. With a few exceptions, I don't really feel much overwhelming emotion over that. People also ask me often, when they hear I am adopted, if I remember my parents, if I see my parents, and of course what they did. "Yes, I was 11 when I was adopted, Stupid" I want to tell them, because why do you assume I was a baby or something? I also like to answer the "do you ever see them?" question with saying that I see my dad sometimes, but my mom is dead, because it has a shock effect for some reason.
It is really annoying that being adopted is "bad." Like I said, it guarantees that my parents are able to take care of me, they have had to prove it. In seminary my teacher asked who in the class was adopted, and I was the only one who was brave enough to raise my hand. One kid (who was adopted) shouted that he wasn't and there was no chance that he was and stuff like that, and I think that there was at least one other person in the class besides us, but why is it something to be ashamed of I had to wonder. After I was the only one to raise my hand the seminary teacher said, "Ok, only Skittles," or something like that, and yeah, I felt embarrassed, because it was like saying that I was different and everyone stared it seemed like. I know that you all say that adoption is good or whatever, but maybe think before you say the first thing that comes to your head, because if you say, "your mother must not have loved you," even joking, you may have just said it to someone who was actually having a hard time because it was their dead mom's birthday and there may just be some back story you fail to see. I don't see why you judge or assume I need your pity, because odds are I really don't.