So for years I have felt like the ugly duckling, settling for less than the best because I never felt that I deserved the best.. I have one failed marriage, it failed because I settled for a man who   wasn't my equal because I wanted to get married. He was an "ugly duckling" He was thin and muscular, average looks but his past was horrid, he was a felon. He was a bad boy from the streets and I thought that I could turn him into a beautiful swan. He disappointed me so many times, I lost a lot behind this bad decision, but I acquired two precious children. A boy in 1996 and a girl the next year. Of course he was not there for their births that would have been too much to hope for.