30 Day Challenge - Day 4 (heh)

Day 4: My Parents

                My sister and I have this understanding.  It took years to figure out the formula.  But.  We are best of friends as long as we do not share a bedroom.  We can share an apartment.  We can share a bathroom.  We cannot sleep in the same room.   Similarly, my relationship with my parents is much more functional long distance.  It’s like magic really.  This is the story of how I learned that being a huge b-word is not the most effective way to interact with my parents.

                For some reason, yet to be understood by me, American culture insists that 17 year old children -with life experience comparable to that of a lab rat, must sit down and decide what it is they want to do with the rest of their whole entire life and then proceed to invest thousands of dollars, and if you’re dumb like me and go the private school route, possibly the life of a first born child, to spend four years learning how to do that.  Well when it was my turn to make such decisions, I was determined to move far away from home.  I narrowed it down to two options.  Pittsburgh, PA or Niagara Falls, NY (I had no 518 options).  It took me a full year to make friends, to adjust to college and then I stayed in Western NY.  One, because I got a job.  Two, because I knew there was no way I was going back from where I came from.  Years of homeschooling and a bunch of younger siblings still at home did not sound like the place for this fledgling college graduate.

     

           My family does most of it’s communicating non-verbally.  And as such we have an unspoken agreement.  I do the visiting.  Not the other way around.  I absolutely dread the drive.  It’s just long enough to be annoying.  Unless Jumpin’ Jacks ice cream is in season and I manage to make it into town during business hours. 

          

         I got a chance to see everyone this past weekend.  Plus the extended family.  Whom I’ve had the privilege of seeing much more of than usual with the influx of weddings that has been 2011.  It’s been an eventful year thus far.  Some good, some awesome, some less than awesome.  It is so nice to know that there is one place I will be eternally welcome – the arms of my parents.  Thank you both for your enduring love.

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