So, it's Father's Day. It makes me think of everything that I've been given in my life by my parents. Here are just three of the ones I'm most thankful for.
1. A pleasant living environment.
Okay, that sounds really weird, but honestly, I think that's a very important thing when raising a family. Our house is a small house in a clean, friendly neighborhood. All of our neighbors are all old or are young families with small tots and beh-bies. Again, it's small, but that's what makes our family so close...not just physically. We had to learn how to get along because if we went to our rooms and slammed the door, we could hear the conversations on the other side and they could hear us cry. We sit on the couches as a family when we watch our shows and sometimes it felt like we were sitting on each other's laps, but it made us comfortable with each other.
2. A living example of a working, loving relationship.
My parents got married really young, but they have never lost their love for each other. For some, cheating is a question of when it will happen and why. However, for my parents, it has never been a question. They still get each other gifts for birthdays and anniversaries even if it crunches the budget a little bit. I love how they support each other's hobbies. My mom loves to crochet and my dad loves comics books. They do those things without causing distance to grow like rust between them, munching away at their bond. Instead, they have a stronghold. Both of my parents came from houses with failed marriages. Instead of making that their greatest weakness, they twisted it into an act of healthy rebellion. The tides changed and they became the strongest couple I know. If my sister and I ever question our relationships, without a doubt we can just hold them up to our parents like tracing paper to draw straighter and sharper lines.
3. A support mechanism.
The best thing about my family is our support system. I can talk about really deep things with my mom. Whenever we ride in the car together, go shopping together, or work together, I can tell her anything about my life without worrying about feeling judged. She gives the best advice and more often than not, I take it. She's very smart about knowing how other people feel in a situation just from listening to my side of the story. In that way, I gain a stronger knowledge of other people while resolving my issues. My dad is the opposite. Instead of delving into an issue to solve it from its core, he provides a distraction from when the drama and work and future all get too hard to take. We'll talk about video games, movies, television shows, comics, electronics, and music. Anything to make the hurt disappear and I always appreciate it.
Both my parents are very different in both parenting styles and personalities. Somehow, they've found a way to make it work and I couldn't be more thrilled to be in the family I'm in. We laugh together, cry together, take walks in the rain together, take silly pictures together, watch So You Think You Can Dance together (8 seasons and counting, but don't even get us started on Survivior), and wear Green Lantern shirts together. It's not like we're perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but much like Tim Gunn would have us do, we "make it work."
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