My hands sweated and I felt chills run up my spine. My parents and siblings had been told that they would be divorcing. I immediately blamed myself. I sat in my living-room, feeling lost and scared about the future.
The divorce of my parents was difficult because I was only ten. Ten-year-olds find it difficult to hear their parents fight and to be misled. It was hard for me to be ten and going into middle-school at the same age.
Both my sisters’ and my lives changed a great deal when we went through the divorce. We saw our father less often than we used to, and this was very strange for us. The changes I experienced were too dramatic for me to comprehend at the time. I was sad because I thought about not seeing my dad as often. Even after 4 years, my parents are still divorced. Always stopping what I’m working to spend time with just one parent or forgetting to contact one parent.
To cope with the stress, I began to play videogames to avoid my parents’ separation. Video games became my obsession because they were an escape from the reality. Video games were not good for me. I needed to change my approach.
I began to see the situation differently. I began to focus on the positives in my own life and realized that there were others who had worse circumstances than myself. My friend’s mother has ALS. ALS is a disease that causes degeneration. She can only communicate through computer and her eyes. She’s currently confined to bed. After hearing about my friend’s problem, I reflected on my own and realized that it was not as bad. It changed the way I looked at my situation. I felt grateful for my own life, which is not as bad as some people’s.
People say that divorce causes emotional stress in children. It is also possible to say that having two parents living apart can be bad for the child. It’s true, but it’s not 100% true. At first it was really hard to have divorced parent. It was an emotional time at first, as things were changing so quickly. At times, it was very stressful for me to have to leave my work to go see my dad. My father is a wonderful man, but I would like to visit him more often and not be tied to a strict schedule. In my later years, I realized the divorce of my parents gave me a strong emotional foundation and helped me to plan for the future.
Despite my parents’ divorce, I consider myself very lucky to have my parents both in my life. Both parents help me make good decisions, so I don’t repeat their mistakes. It’s always a question that I ask myself: What would my life have been like had my parents lived together? The question bothers my mind because I don’t know if it would be better to have my parents together. My parents would probably fight daily if they were still together and that would make life difficult for me. I am sure that kids with divorced parent could also say the same about their own lives.
What would my life be like if both my parents were together? It’s because I don’t remember waking up with my parents each day, or doing anything with them.