“Every day brings new choices.”
-Martha Beck

The choices we make in life can sometimes make or break who you are as a person and even impact those around you in a positive or negative way. Your parents make a lot of choices for you when you’re younger like picking out your meal or which friend’s you hang out with. My parents chose to take my brother, Jake, and I sledding in the winter and on day trips to Dubuque in the summer. We used to spend a lot of time with each other down in the basement next to the cozy fireplace as a family. Now the house I live in each day doesn’t feel like a home. We are tip-toeing around on eggshells waiting for the next fight to break out.

For as long as I can remember, my parents have always fought about the little things. Yelling and swearing was a genre of music that played throughout the house on any given day. Then there was the genre of silence, after the fight, where everyone was afraid to say anything to each other. I had always believed this whole situation to be normal. This is how families function, I told myself. This was my reality until the tension began to rise to a new level.

We were recovering from an eventful scary year and my mom was becoming distant. She has always been the reliable one who went to work and came home to make dinner. When she announced to the family that she was going to start on a bowling league and apply for a job at Deer Valley, we were taken aback. I was happy that she was doing something for herself but then the lies started to be unsettling. Although she joined a bowling league she failed to mention to my dad it was co-ed. The truth also came out about her taking on another job to get away from the house.

Even after all of these clues it seemed to come so suddenly and was pretty confusing but it wasn’t surprising this is what she wanted A divorce. All of those childhood memories of being together and having a good time all came back to me. This was a decision that has been threatened, but there were never measures taken to follow through with it. Somehow when she mentioned it to me this time, it became real. This was something she really wanted to do to make her happy. Even though it hurts me to think of my parents separated, maybe it is for the better.

My mom and dad have always supported each other financially but emotional support is something else. Dad isn’t the most in-touch with his feelings and has a hard time expressing them. I know he cares for her very much, but at this point I guess she decided that isn’t enough. She has obviously given this a lot of thought and I can tell it crushes her, but some decisions have to be made for you. Sitting by the fireplace alone now seems to be the best way to relive the days when we weren’t a broken family.