I know there is so much more out there than what I have experienced

I grew up with divorced parents. When I was a baby my parents got divorced because my dad was struggling with addiction and everything, but he’s always been a great dad. He got remarried pretty quickly to a woman that had 3 other children and then my dad had another child that was my half brother. My mom had another child that is also my half brother. I’m the only sibling that had my parents. I’m the only full blood. So growing up, I would go to my dads house every other weekend and we would call those “kid’s weekends” because both my half brothers would be there even though one of my half brothers wasn’t my dad’s child.

At these kid weekends we would go on all these adventures and have these big family Sunday breakfast. When I wasn’t there I would be at my mom’s house. My mom was a single woman till I was in 5th grade so it was only me and my brother. She was a hard working single mother. I went to my grandparents a lot because my mother had to work so I had this kind of life style too.

That had its rough times. I really enjoyed my dad’s house and sometimes I couldn’t get over there. I really enjoyed seeing my dad. My dad and I were really close so it was hard only seeing him twice a month.

It’s been such an interesting experience that a lot of people never had, this dichotomy of a life. It’s given me more perspective and to be more compassionate towards different life styles because I experienced 2 different life styles growing up. I know there is so much more out there than what I have experienced.

I was obsessed with this pillow. There are pictures of me at Disney World with it with the Disney characters surrounding me and I just have my little pillow. My dad would always try to fix the holes and re-stuff it. I think he actually still has this tattered pillow in storage because he likes to save things like that. It was a constant, it was a constant comfort that maybe I didn’t have because I was going back and forth between parents. It was always there.