Theme- The Family

Preface

The theme of our group is family, but I wanted to think outside the box so the group decided to write a story incorporating our experiences and ideas.

“The Family”

The back door of a tidy middle class home slammed shut.

“Oops! Sorry mom. I didn’t mean to do that,” said Peter.

“Oh, Peter. You are something. I’ve made some homemade cookies for you. And don’t forget to do your homework,” said Mrs. Ramses.

“Mom, I’m sixteen,” says Peter.

She smiles and ponders on how fast her only son has grown up. A couple of hours later Peter walks into the kitchen and grabs a cookie.

“Hey mom, I’m going over to John’s to hang out,” said Peter.

“Okay, be home by dinner time,” replied Peter’s mother.

Peter walks over to Sina’s home to find his other friends Heidi and Rita there also. However, instead of finding his friends laughing and joking with each other as they normally do, they were mellow and frustrated.

“What’s going on guys?” Peter asks confused.

“Oh, it’s just our families. We’re so irritated with them,” replied Heidi.

“If it’s okay for me to ask, what’s wrong?” said Peter.

“Well, I’ll start first,” said Heidi.

I just started dating a wonderful guy this past Sunday. He's absolutely great! My mom and most of my family think he's pretty cool, but my dad and his father aren't too happy about his ethnic background. He's half Mexican, half white. My dad and his father are very against interracial relationships. Not only that but also my mother is very controlling. She tries to control most parts of my life. Thus, she doesn't want me to take any risks and follow my heart right now and start a long relationship. We know we don't really have the time and money to do so. We weren't planning to make this relationship serious right away because we are still in high school. My sister said that we should wait until at least after college and then to feel free to do as we please. My mother cannot control me no matter how hard she tries. She holds the fact that she still pays for all my belongings as leverage.

“That’s real unfortunate,” said Peter.

“No, that’s not as bad as my story,” said Rita.

My family works like if my mom says something, it goes. We might as well not ask my dad anything because all he says is "asks your mother". And if she isn't home, well we are just out of luck. My mom is being really strict. I think my mother is so strict because she grew up in a family with conservative parents in the Navy. Who knows? But she always has rules and more rules. Call me when you get there, call me when you leave, call me if things change are her most common phrases. I don’t know why I don’t just put my cell phone on speaker so she can pretend like she is with me all day. I hate it when she would ask me how my day was or anything else because her words are meaningless because she doe not show affection. Her rules are really ridiculous, especially being in high school and still having to call my friends’ parents when I went to their house. My brother and sisters area always my saving grace whenever my mom drives me crazy at the end. We have gotten really close lately since they always have some sort of elderly advice for me.

Recently, I started dating my boyfriend who is black. I didn't really know how that would go over with my parents. I knew my grandparents would freak out but my parents aren't really as old-fashioned. Well, when my boyfriend came to pick me up for our first date, he walked in the door. Immediately, you could feel the temperature of the room reach the freezing point. My mother at the time was trying to be polite, but it was obvious from her facial expressions that she was bewildered. After that she tried to change my mind and mention things like "maybe you should date someone that's the same color as you". Though, I ignored everything she said. I wasn't going to let color affect the way I felt about someone. She tells my grandparents everything, but she didn't tell them I had a black boyfriend. She seemed ashamed. When she told people about him, she would refer to him as my "friend".

“Phew, that was long, but it’s true. I feel all bottled up and ready to explode,” said Rita.

“I see where you are coming from Rita, but my mom is trying to persuade me what college to attend, what field of studies I should major in, and what occupation I will have,” said Sina.

Being of Persian heritage, I daily encounter the ins and outs of the Persian culture and way of thinking. Persian people are very proud, elegant, and also lazy (who isn’t and the Chinese don’t count). For some reason, having “Dr.” preceding their name or “Mohandis” (which is Farsi for Engineer) gives Persians a sense of accomplishment. However, my mom has a prejudice against engineers, mainly since she is one and so is my father. She always complains that they are too many engineers in the family and not enough doctors. Then she gives me this look of khodahyah, oh my god, I’m going to take you out of my will if you don’t become an orthopedic surgeon. This really bothers me. Oh and I almost forgot to tell everyone about the guilt trap my mom tries to play on me by saying doctors help people so they are automatically going to heaven, which is really a naïve perspective.

Although she has a point that I learn by memorizing information better than working with theories and concepts, I still prefer engineering. I have to admit to that one. Another point that she keeps bringing up is my ability to comprehend material very easily without having to delve too much time into one subject. I hate myself now; truly I would make a great doctor. So that’s the million dollar question, why don’t I just become a doctor.

First of all, I don’t like blood. I might be able to get use to it, but come on who likes to cut other people and then sew them back together. If you think about it, medicine has not really changed. Well ok it’s changed but the basics are still there. The doctor cuts up the patient, takes out what the problem is, fixes the problem, and then puts everything back together like a puzzle. It’s a gruesome depiction but it gets the job done.

“I’m sorry to hear you all are having trouble with your families. You know my parents are relaxed about those kinds of situations,” Peter explains. My parents know that in the end I’ll have to make my choices and their job is to give me advice along the way and support me through the process.”

“I think we can all agree on that one,” said Sina.

“Yeah, thanks Confucius,” said Rita.

THE END

The concept of family is what has brought civilization from the Babylonians to the present. Without a sense of family, humans lose the ability to function. No matter how dysfunctional a family is or is not does not matter; at the end of the day when you’re sick, tired, and demoralized, you can go to your family and talk things over. Additionally, this is for all teenagers, we as offspring from our parents are in a literal sense part of them as they are a part of us. The genes from our parents made us; the blood, nutrients, and bodily functions of our mother all helped to create a child. And to say that they don’t know what they are talking about is absurd, our parents care for us or they would have never put us on the production line. They are trying to make sure “we” don’t make the mistakes they made. They are only trying to help us, so listen.