Respect

I remember when I was young, and my father said “Respect is earned not given”. It turns out that I would learn this lesson with some heartache. I have two siblings, a brother, and a sister. My parents have been married for 43 years. Times have been up and down, financially, and emotionally but we always had good family values.

My life started in the city, living with a father that worked 60 hours a week, a stay at home mother, younger brother, younger sister and my father. I grew up in a two-story house that my father and uncle owned. We lived on the bottom section that had three bedrooms. One was for my parents, and one was for my sister, my brother and I shared a room. I was the oldest, and it seemed like I got blamed for everything.

My family always started the day off with breakfast at the kitchen table. We would then head off for work, school and house chores. At night, we ended at the kitchen table for dinner. My father was a man of little words, but did always ask my mother, “How did the day go”? Praying, she would not tell the real truth, her answer would always be, “Oh good, nothing exciting”.

I thought life was great, got all my friends, middle school is going well. I can remember a time when we had a good family dinner, where my father told my mother, “We are moving up North. “I purchased 6 acres of land and we will be there by the summer, as soon as the kids are out of school”. Shocked, of this news, and not thinking I said, “I’m not moving, all my friends are here”. My father said “Tough, make new friends”.

My father already gone for work, no family breakfast and now living in the country with trees, and animals the beginning of my new life, the school year begins in unfamiliar land. I now have a big yellow bus that picks me up in the morning, and will drop me off at night. The school year was going to be rough for me; I had long hair, and talked a little differently. Being picked on for the long hair, and I was known as a...