Pushed Out of the Nest Too Early

        The thought of me being courageous is sort of improbable, at least for me. I was and sometimes still am a person who would rather keep to myself - secluded and isolated from others. So the thought of me being bold, lionhearted or audacious is simply crazy. But a sudden thought arouses in my head of a time I was courageous and in a way heroic.

It began when I was in grade five. My parents had officially split up and my dad ended up taking the four of us: Dustin, Mariah, Dalton and myself. Technically it was just Dalton and I because both Dustin and Mariah ran off living with either their friends or other relatives. For some odd reason I was kind of happy they did because Dustin was an angry person all the time, hardly smiled, so I couldn’t stand to be near him, not only that but he scared me when he yelled. And Mariah, she always would take my things without asking so with her not being there, there was no issue.

At first it was normal. Dalton and I caught the bus in the morning to school while my dad went around town in search for a job. We’d come home, eat, clean, watch TV or play the game consol. Until a couple of months went by and we’d come home to no food to eat or nothing to do due to no electricity. My dad was still unemployed. This was weird because he would never be home as though he did have a job. He’d come home late in the night and leave early in the morning. This was my courageous act, without thinking I became a mother to my brother. I did whatever I had to do to make sure Dalton had something to eat. It was tough though because at time is was if we were living in poverty.

         At other times though, it was easy. I’d make a simply dish with whatever we had in the cupboards like ichiban, mac and cheese or even just cereal. I’d also make sure we had clean laundry for the day after.

         It took courage to do what I did. I had a choice, to either take care of my brother or be selfish and leave him to fend for himself; I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t leave my 6 years old brother alone like that, so I took on a really big responsibility and I believe it had to take a whole lot of audacity to do so.

 

By Anesia Young Pine