You can handle more than you think
The summer I turned 16, we moved. Like desert nomads, we packed up our lives and hit the road with barely a month’s notice. Few goodbyes, zero farewell parties. Not even a moment for regret. My mom had won another trip to the asylum, so that left me in charge of preparing the house for market. And taking care of my little brother.
Could I handle all that responsibility? The question never occurred to me quite like that. When you have no choice but to rise up, then you normally do. If I said your life depended on learning French by next weekend, I bet you’d become surprisingly fluent. Oui?
Facing adversity in youth builds a surprising amount of strength and character that serves us well in adulthood. God, that sounded lame. I’m not sure how else to say it. That’s the truth.
At the time, I was surprised how some of my friends reacted to all the bad news when I shared it with them. Wow, we were moving. My mom was going nuts.
One of my best friends felt obligated to point out the unfairness. She said, “If I were you, I’d just run away.”
It was a good thing we were talking on the phone. Because I rolled my eyes. Hard. Of course, my friend persisted. “Why do you even put up with all that? It’s not your fault all this bad shit keeps happening.”
