48 Edgemont Lane

I grew up in a two-parent home with two other siblings. I am the youngest, the quietest, and the softest of us three. My brother is the gamer who will spend days in front of a computer screen and pee in a plastic bottle when he doesn't feel like getting up. My sister, the oldest, is the wild child. She likes to go out late, doesn't contribute to the house much, and isn't always that reliable. She has a different father than my brother and me, but considering we all grew up together, I don't see her any differently than I would if she weren't my half-sister. If you actually saw her, you could tell that she wasn't my full sister.

Our parents are very different. My father, the militant type, is big on discipline and order. He likes things done his way because he believes his way is always best. He was never in the military, but I believe his father was and is the reason my father is the way he is. Don't get me wrong, my father is very nice, playful, and a great provider, but as a daughter, we often don't see eye to eye. My mother is very warm and loving. She wears many hats and has many business ventures. Seeing the kind of domestic queen she was growing up heavily contributes to how I am now...domestic. The way I see it, my father is great for financial support and my mother is strongest for emotional support.

I come from a Christian household. I was raised in the church. I went to a Christian private school up until 3rd grade, and then I transferred to a public school because the cost of a private school for three kids was a lot for one working parent. My father worked three jobs at the time which really affected his mental health..and marriage..and not to mention certain addictions he was struggling with. I enjoyed my life. I don't remember very much of it now considering I am approaching 23 years of life, but there is one thing I remember. I was bored. My life was so boring. The routine of going to school in my nice uniform, going to church on Sunday, and then repeating the same thing over again wasn't enough for me. I didn't take any dance classes, acting classes, kickboxing, or anything. My free time consisted of playing outside with the neighboring kids, and I loved that, but something was missing for me and at the time, I didn't know what.

In my free time, I also loved to watch TV. My favorite shows were Hannah Montana, H20: Just Add Water, and The Nanny Named Fran. There were more, of course, but those I remember overtaking my imagination. I wanted to be a rockstar, I wanted to be a mermaid, and I wanted to have an exciting love life. I blame TV for my boredom. I blame it because, in TV shows, there was always drama, always an unexpected plot twist, always some type of love story that I wish I had in my life. My life wasn't actually boring boring, but compared to fantasy, it was.

The reality was that I was this young girl with dreams in her head of adventure, but had no way of living it out in real life. So what did I do? Honestly..nothing. I would love to say that I asked my parents for extracurricular activities to give me something to do. I would love to say that I met someone at school that I became best friends with then fell in love with. I would love to say that I found an outlet for my boredom, but I didn't. I continued my days living in my head and living through my favorite characters on the TV screen.

One day, when I became a little older, my life finally turned a little less boring. I used to pray for something exciting to happen in my life. I'd pray for my family to move to a different town, for me to meet a cute boy that would break my heart, for some type of change..and that is exactly what I got.

That year, my parents divorced. I moved to a different home in a different town. I went to a different school, had to make new friends, and had to come to terms with the fact that my parents were splitting up. Be careful what you pray for folks because this was only the beginning of a series I like to relate to My Life As An American Teenager. A new life was rapidly approaching for me and I handled it by shutting down and closing off. I was sad and suddenly did not want anything to change.

One day, before everything was packed and moved out of the house, I sat outside on our backyard patio and starred quietly into the yard. We had a huge yard. There was so much we could have done with that backyard, but my favorite part of the yard was this one tree that sat right next to the patio. Do you know those trees that produce something different in every season? This was one of those trees. In one season it would produce pink flowers. In another season, it would grow pears. I used to think it was a magic tree but to be fair, pears are my favorite fruit and pink was my favorite color at the time so I may have been a little biased. Either way, I solely acknowledged it as "the pear tree".

I sat outside for a long time that day dreaming about what life was about to look like for me and my family. My mom noticed my absence from the house and after a while came out to join me. She sat next to me and at first uttered no words. She was just there with me sitting in the silence of uncertainty. I caught myself fixated on the pear tree and said aloud, "I am going to miss this tree the most".

My mom responded, "Why is that honey?"

"Because it was always here. Even when you and daddy first bought this home, the pears were always here. I also like how it blooms flowers too. You get something new in each season." I remember I started to cry at this moment. My mother placed her hand on my back and started to rub it in a circle, as she does when she is trying to comfort me.

She took a second to herself before responding but eventually uttered the words, "It's like us in a way. It's time for our season to change. And with change comes something new to be created. I know you are worried about our new season, but I am here. Your family is still here, and we will all get through this together."

This brought me comfort at the time. My mother wasn't always good with analogies and metaphors, but I always appreciated her attempts. I guess she did something right though because to this day, I remember staring at the pear tree with my mother in tears of how life was about to change. As life did change and as I came to experience the dramas of life, I have learned that the drama seen on TV is not as fun to experience in real life. The heartbreaks, the betrayals, the traumas my parents tried their hardest to protect me from were bound to be experienced one way or another. Even though my love for drama and overactive imagination has fueled my passion to become an actress, I could really deal without the unforeseen drama in real life that was soon to come. 48 Edgemont lane was good to me and my family, but the day we moved out of that safe, routine, and comfortable childhood home was the day I had to learn to grow up.