Family by Kendall Curtis
“FAMILY…functional, dysfunctional, uniquely personal.” – Don Riesett, Writing Mentor & Teacher
Family to me may be different to other people. My family is full of murderers , drug addicts , and people who need to go to therapy. They don’t know how to express their emotions so most of the time problems go unsolved and they carry it with them. They don’t know how to talk to kids. I have witnessed, on several occasions, how my family’s words have negatively affected a child’s life and view of themselves.
I got lucky with my mom because she actually treats me like a person. My aunt’s kids hate her. They come to my mom for basically any problem they have. Although my aunt and mother share the same parents, they have completely different emotional responses. My aunt(who is the oldest) was raised by my grandmother. My grandmother is a writing within itself so I am not going to talk about her today. but let’s just say she is an old ax. My mother, on the other hand, was raised by my grandfather. He was much more patient and empathetic. I believe this shaped my mother and my aunt into the people they are today. It’s just very ironic because my aunt is more successful than my mother. She knew she had to get away from my grandmother.
I plan on being the person to break the trauma curse in my family. When I make it big and have plenty of money, I want to put all of them in therapy so that they can realize that the things you say to kids matter. I want them to see what their parents did to them is a clear reflection of how they act right now. Until then, I am stuck with a bunch of women with undiagnosed bipolar disorder and PTSD. There is so much pain just sitting in the core of all of them.
They wonder why I want to get away from them for college. It’s simply because I don’t want to be like them. I don’t want to harbor bad energy from years and years before. I don’t want to put my hands on my kids or call them slurs. Lastly, I don’t want all my hard work to be wasted because I can’t control how I react when someone says something to me.
Kendall Curtis
October 18 ,2024