Okay, so the last post has inspired me to lay out a quick family story of my own. When I was about 5, my parents decided to get divorced. Big change. At 7, my mother passed away from cancer, making my dad a widower and leaving 3 kids motherless. Even bigger change. Like we talked about in class with Mrs. Doubtfire, my mother had received most of the custody in courts. Through some odd court ruling, we were sent to live with my aunt and uncle (on my mother's side) when she passed away. My father wanted custody, but he couldn't get it. He spent years and years trying to get us kids back and he finally had a breakthrough: marriage to his high school sweetheart. She helped him a lot and he finally got us back. Then we moved away and I was at the age to move away to college. I picked Nebraska because my step-mom's family is here and my parents recently followed me here. So basically, I my life has been a whirlwind so far and I want to figure out why my siblings and I all turned out so differently.
I know all about dysfunction. I want to know more about strong families and how to be in one. At the moment, my little brother is a delinquent and my older brother never talks too me. This class, in part, has inspired me to reach out to my parents a little more lately. It makes me realize the type of bonds that we kids forged when we were little. I think that my brother forged a secure bond with my mom, but when she passed away, it was lost. He has been affected by that so that it is hard for him to bond again. I forged a secure bond with my dad and, for the most part, I think that I bond well with people. The separation was hard, but I think that I am stronger for it. On the other hand, my little brother has deep issues, like being manipulative, lying, and being apathetic. I think that he definitely has an ambivalent/anxious bonding style. I think that we all need to work on it.
So, overall, I hope to learn more about my family but I also want to get involved in this type of thing as a career. I find it utterly fascinating and of course, for selfish reasons, I want to learn more about myself and my family so that I can try to make it even stronger. This class is going to be invaluable.