NY Woman, I was just about to turn my computer off for the night when I saw this thread in active topics. I could not resist replying to a "sad and lonely" topic title. Here's something I wrote in my teens because I felt like a misfit, and was trying to convince myself otherwise. " I was not a misfit. There was something missing in me, and if only I could figure it out, I would figure it in." You asked, "How do I shake this feeling?" I lived in 8 different states, a hundred different cities, with divided families, foster families, and in psych wards with my own different states of mind simultaneously. Even in my own families (yes, plural) I would ask my grandmother if I had been adopted because I did not fit in. (A counselor later told me that I was born sane to an insane family, thus the poor fit.) I'd run away and end up with foster families which felt like a better fit than the aforementioned multi-families. But no matter where, I always felt like an outsider. In my case, I learned that it was not about where I was or who I was with, but about a "fitting" relationship with myself, and dare I say a Higher Power. When I began to believe that God accepted me for who I am, I began to accept myself, and I began to feel accepted by others. (still a wee bit insecure, though.) This is not meant to be a lecture; it is just my way of letting you know you are not alone, and that I and others can relate. As a boomer woman you are certainly not a misfit, unless we are all misfits because a misfit does not fit anywhere except with misfits, and with all these boomer women, there would be an entire subculture of misfits, which we are not. OK, I better sign off for tonight. Love and Light, Lynn