Alike

I grew up convinced that my parents had no clue about family. I knew every family was better than ours. The families of my friends were so much better than mine. I watched in awe as their parents had real conversations with them. They actually cared what happened at school and throughout their day. I stood in the shadows watching the parents - both the mother and father - preparing dinner together as the kids helped. I desperately wanted to be assigned a chore, but it never happened as I remained a guest, the outsider. I was jealous and felt sad upon arriving home to silence without a simple question about my day. I latched on these other families - going as far as they would let me. They happily invited me to family gatherings and shopping trips, but I would never be one of them. I was always an outsider and we both knew it. As I grew older, the perfect facade of many of these families broke away to reveal a less-than-perfect environment. It should have, but it didn't, deter me from dreaming about the Leave it to Beaver family.