Different people define their family by different standards and guidelines. Some use the guidelines that I listed above: genetics, who you live with, or those who will get you out of trouble....I on the other hand use different guidelines.
For most of my life my family was non-existent and my life was turbulent and depended heavily on the "tough" stuff that I was made of. Rarely was I able to sit back and enjoy a carefree existence with those who surrounded me. It took me until I was 14 to meet the woman I now call my Mom.At the time I was living in a foster care placement with a foster family who was not very loving and did not care very much about me and my needs. I moved in with that family when I was 11 years old in the hope that I had finally found what I needed and what I felt I was cheated out of. Alas moving into that house was not what I was destined to have...it was a means of finding what I was to have. I went through a semester of 6th grade all of 7th and 8th grades and then entered high school and met my Mom. She was the Theatre Directer at the high school and when I first met her I though she was nuts! She would not sit still for more than 5 seconds and was constantly barking instructions at the various theatre kids in her room and to her seminar kids. I was very intimidated and to be honest I was not sure I was going to hang around.
The department was in the middle of their annual Dinner Theater and I was given the opportunity to have a small role in the play (Reunion at Homicide High) and was put in charge of clean up in the kitchen....after that I guess you can say I was hooked. I jumped in head first into the crazy world of being a theatre kid and I can say that thus far it was the time of my life. I help out with every show there after and was given head crew positions and even a couple acting roles (Friar Tuck in 'The Hood of Sherwood' and Jen in 'dont u luv me?'). Over the years I slowly got to know the director Amanda Vannocker, I met various members of her family and her then fiance, I was around when she married her fiance Jacob Stice and she became Amanda Stice, and I was there when the had their daughter Lillian Ryan. Many things had to go just right and in a particular way for us all to fall into the roles we now have but everything fell into place and when I turned 18 last May I was able to move in with Jacob, Amanda, and Lilli and call their home my home and their families my family.
Now as I have showed in this anecdote my family and I are not the traditional kind of family but what matters is that we love each other and have strong relationships with each other. I may not share any genetic codes with them or have the same blood type, nor did I grow up with them teaching me the ways of the world but I feel that while those are things I sometimes wish I had what we do have is much more important. Love is what makes my family. Love is what holds us together. It is what gives me reassurance when I am afraid or when I freak out. We are a happy family who enjoys time with one another no matter how we all came to be together. I love them all more than the world. There is nothing that I would not do for any of them. So today's picture is our picture, my parents, my sister and me. :) I love you.
 |
| Meus familia. Now and Forever. |
No comments:
Post a Comment