Life Can Be Funny Sometimes

“A found family is every bit as beautiful as a born family. Even more so, perhaps. Stories are about choices, after all, and to choose to be family is as wonderful a story as can be told.”
― Dan Gemeinhart, The Midnight Children

Life is funny, sometimes.  Every day starts to bleed into the next; monotony of the highest order.  Every day much the same as that which came before it.  You end up on auto-pilot.  You end up in a routine.  Your day to day consists of similar patterns, across the board.  In the best case scenario, you are at least content.  In the worst case scenario, you have relegated yourself to a position of unending misery that is simply your lot in life.  Some years back, I was in the latter category.

I had dreams.  I had ambitions.  I had goals.  But somewhere along the line, my life took a hard turn in the opposite direction.  The car got parked, and someone else took the wheel and started driving, like a bat out of hell, down the road that THEY wanted to go down, leaving any hopes that I had in the rear view mirror.  I became a mere passenger, and simply had to sit and watch the world pass by me.  

For years, I tolerated that long, lonely car ride.  Every day, riding further away from my family.  Every day riding further away from my friends.  Every day riding further away from the life that I thought I deserved.  I viewed it as fate; that I was destined to not be happy.  That I was meant to simply live this new life that I was in.  That’s just how it works, right?  My feelings, of course, were emboldened and reinforced constantly by the person driving the car.  It just was what it was.  Things would always be this way.  I didn’t get to be happy like other people.  I didn’t get to have a happy, productive, positive ride.  There was no way out.  I was stuck, forever.  Eventually, years later, we gained an additional passenger in the car.  This passenger, to this day, is the only reason that I don’t regret ever getting into that car to begin with.  

And then, one day, through a series of events, I found myself freed from the seat-belt, and launched out of the car that I was in.  I landed on the ground, flat on my back.  I was in a daze, but somehow, I was totally unscathed.  As I stood up to survey my new surroundings, I ended up finding a new car in front of me.  This car was bigger, and came with more passengers.  The driver and all the passengers welcomed me aboard with open arms.  The driver only asked that we work together and share the burden of the drive, together, as a team.  They also told me that the passengers could be a handful sometimes, and were terrified that they would make me want to jump right out of the car.  

I gladly chose to climb aboard, however.  And I’ve been aboard for nearly 5 years.  And in those 5 years, myself, the other driver, and all the passengers have been through more than I even have time to explain.  So many highs, and just as many lows.  But through it all, we’ve only grown closer.  We’ve all shouldered the burden together.  When the car has broken down, we have all taken turns pushing it.  When one of us gets too tired, we have all taken turns driving.  When the car has needed repairs, we have all taken turns trying to fix it.  

…

Life is funny, sometimes.  One day, you are at one of the lowest points of your life.  You’re run down.  You’re exhausted.  You’re depressed.  You’re out of hope.  And then in the blink of an eye, everything changes.  You go from one child, just barely a year old, to a couple teenagers, some twenty-somethings, and three grandbabies you never could’ve imagined having.  And all of those extra children love you, and your child, as you are, every day.  And even more surprising, you love them, just as much, if not more, than you ever thought possible.  You have a huge, blended family.  And for the first time in years, you are happy.  

Does happiness mean it’s always easy?  Hell no!  Sometimes it’s really hard.  But you, and everyone in your family CHOOSE each-other.  You choose each other every single day.  Through the good times, and through the bad.  And because of that the highs you have together match and even exceed the lows.  Highs like being able to take your whole family to a concert, so that they can learn more about the kind of music that you like.  Highs like that family being fully open and willing to go to that concert with you.  Highs like things happening during that concert that would make you cry and would bring you all closer together.  But more on that later.

For now, I’ll leave you with this.  I CHOOSE this family.  I choose Veronica (Lady V).  I choose Destiny.  I choose Sabrina.  I choose Christopher.  I choose Noel.  I choose Bailey, and Amelia, and Harper.  I choose this family now, and I will choose this family for the rest of my life.  

And speaking of chosen family:  I choose all of you.  I choose Family Style.  I’ve said it time and time again.  This is an incredible, life changing group of people from all over the world, bonded together almost a year ago on similar interests.  In that time, this group has developed one of the most incredible communities on the internet; Selfless love and ridiculous humor, mixed with an education only gained by a culture clash that merges people from all corners of the globe.  The bonds built here are forged in fire, and will last for a lifetime.  And I will forever be grateful that this community, this Family, is here.  



Part Two:  The Concert is coming soon….