Family

  As a typical teenager, we all have our insecurities. We face anxieties and problems in our life, because it’s a learning curve of being independent. Today, my friends gathered around and we did a pass the parcel game, every layer there will be a question that you have to answer.  We never expected that the questions were very hard-hitting and emotional, as it attacks the soft spot of your hearts. It was heart-breaking to hear the stories my friends were telling, showing another side of them that I’ve never seen. They expressed their feelings that were stored in the abyss of their hearts.

  My friend’s parents divorced when she was 12, she was young, a bigger sister of an oblivious younger brother. The emotions she had gone through, the confusion and frustration she must have gone through, covering her brother’s ears whilst their parents were shouting at each other in the other wall. My friend told me that she was hospitalized after her parent’s divorce because she didn’t eat for 2 weeks. The obligation to protect her brother, dealing with the arguments her parents had every day; it was just too much for a 12 year old. Even after a few years, she tells me she’s over the divorce, that she’s fine with it, but I could see the tinge of sadness in her eyes. Nobody deserves this; nobody deserves to see their loved ones tearing apart. I really wanted to help her, but what could I do, I didn’t know what she was going through, nobody could ever understand the divorce she went through that scarred her, because it is only her that could understand.

  My other friend also has been through a similar situation, her parents split up when she was young. Her parents split up because her mother was paranoid that her father was cheating on her, she tells me she remembers every moment of when her father packed his bags out the door. She remembers that she lied to her friends that her parents were really busy and were never in the house, because she didn’t want her friends to know about the split. Her bigger sister, to her seemed that she didn’t care about the whole situation, leaving her alone in a one-man battle. I just wanted to give her the biggest hug in the world to her; she doesn’t deserve this, at all. Now, she sees it as an experience that made her stronger, she started to study after the split instead of being the rebellious girl she was, and now she sees it as a bad memory. Of course, she will be never be able to forget about the split, but at least she knows that her family is not in a bad position now. It brought another side to her, the bright and happy friend I knew, suddenly turned into a vulnerable, weak young girl who didn’t know what to do.

  Our family is the support of our life, our decisions, no matter what the circumstances are, your family is something that you can rely on. Having a broken family like the majority of my friends, it makes the child think they can’t lean on their family members any more, your family is no longer that reliable as they were before, because they have seen the ugly side of you. I am so lucky to have a happy family with no problems, because later on in society, there will always be people out there who are there to catch you and deliberately hurt you, but your family won’t. Therefore, please treasure your family, appreciate the fact that you have a mother and father there to give you advice when you face a barrier in life. Having your parent’s unconditional love is the most precious present you could ever get, so this Christmas, celebrate this. Show your love to your family so they feel they are appreciated and supported, because family is there for you and one another.