Ohana Means Family. Family Means Nobody Gets Left Behind or Forgotten. My dad was a cop and my mom was a bartender who smoked pot. I use that line when asked about my parents. It’s also a good summation for my upbringing.
“What were the best and worst parts of your day?” My mom asked my three sisters and me at dinner. “Being here with my family,” we joked. It wasn’t an acceptable answer for either part of the question, but past age five, I couldn’t even answer with that sarcastic response, because my whole family wouldn’t be together again. I now long for that nightly moment.
I was an ignorant five year old Kindergartner making up names for scooter tricks that I wasn’t landing. I was at the last place that I’ve called home and meant it. …show more content…
It was summer again. They must have waited behind the door because they came out to the garage as his car arrived and they said goodbye to us. We ran inside and called dibs on things that they weren’t taking to their dad’s. I got a few CDs among other things. We shared a room prior to then, so we fought over who would get Leah’s room. That argument ended in another over who would get the top bunk in Leah’s old room. It hadn’t registered with me that Leah and Gabby wouldn’t be around. I just assumed that, one way or another, family would be there. Claiming their things gave us memorabilia of them, but over time it faded in our minds that these things were at one point not ours. We saw Leah and Gabby four or five times a year for the next ten years. They lived in Arizona for one of them. Our mom told us that we were not allowed to see our own sisters. That was the first time that we started to disagree with our …show more content…
My dad lived in another school district, so again I had to say goodbye to friends that I had grown closer to over four years. I lost my mother and sisters because of our parents’ inability to be civil. We heard them fight, grew tired of it, and chose sides. After the court hearing, like after Leah and Gabby left, I didn’t see Trystan more than four times a year for the next 7 years. I didn’t grow up having sibling relationships with my siblings aside from Presley.
My relationship with my dad went to shit by the 2nd or 3rd year living with him as started drinking and doing drugs in High School. In tenth grade, I called my mom and started spending time with her again. My dad kicked me out when I turned 18 and I went to live with my mom who basically used me for rent because she couldn’t afford her apartment. I remember my Aunt Regina saying to me, “You know you’re going to be stuck, right?” And I was for four years. I couldn’t afford to go to college, especially after she lost her job and I had to use financial aid disbursements for our
“What were the best and worst parts of your day?” My mom asked my three sisters and me at dinner. “Being here with my family,” we joked. It wasn’t an acceptable answer for either part of the question, but past age five, I couldn’t even answer with that sarcastic response, because my whole family wouldn’t be together again. I now long for that nightly moment.
I was an ignorant five year old Kindergartner making up names for scooter tricks that I wasn’t landing. I was at the last place that I’ve called home and meant it. …show more content…
It was summer again. They must have waited behind the door because they came out to the garage as his car arrived and they said goodbye to us. We ran inside and called dibs on things that they weren’t taking to their dad’s. I got a few CDs among other things. We shared a room prior to then, so we fought over who would get Leah’s room. That argument ended in another over who would get the top bunk in Leah’s old room. It hadn’t registered with me that Leah and Gabby wouldn’t be around. I just assumed that, one way or another, family would be there. Claiming their things gave us memorabilia of them, but over time it faded in our minds that these things were at one point not ours. We saw Leah and Gabby four or five times a year for the next ten years. They lived in Arizona for one of them. Our mom told us that we were not allowed to see our own sisters. That was the first time that we started to disagree with our …show more content…
My dad lived in another school district, so again I had to say goodbye to friends that I had grown closer to over four years. I lost my mother and sisters because of our parents’ inability to be civil. We heard them fight, grew tired of it, and chose sides. After the court hearing, like after Leah and Gabby left, I didn’t see Trystan more than four times a year for the next 7 years. I didn’t grow up having sibling relationships with my siblings aside from Presley.
My relationship with my dad went to shit by the 2nd or 3rd year living with him as started drinking and doing drugs in High School. In tenth grade, I called my mom and started spending time with her again. My dad kicked me out when I turned 18 and I went to live with my mom who basically used me for rent because she couldn’t afford her apartment. I remember my Aunt Regina saying to me, “You know you’re going to be stuck, right?” And I was for four years. I couldn’t afford to go to college, especially after she lost her job and I had to use financial aid disbursements for our