Embracing Change

I remember my young, first-grade self was just casually sitting at home  with no worries watching television. The show on the small screen was Spongebob since I was a heavy fan of it back then. Although the cartoon usually captivated my attention, this time was different. There was a knock at the door, and I looked in that direction as one would when he is  curious. In my childlike mind, I was of course thinking something bogus which was that maybe Spongebob Squarepants was at the door, which was quickly dismissed once I added a couple drops of logic and realism to my thinking. I was somewhat bummed out, I remember, because real life wasn’t as wondrous as my wild imagination at the time. 

All of these thoughts and feelings were occurring at the same moment that my mother was making the walk to the door to answer the knocking. By the time she had her hand on the door, I had already looked away because my attention span was taking a hard hit, so I ended up just returning to my Sponge friend on the television. I heard the door open, and the sound of my mother’s voice as she greeted who ever was there.   Suddenly I felt a spike of alertness when I heard a man’s voice, one I had never heard before. I was feeling confused and curious, so I turned my head to see who it was. Bam! I turned my head, and I was still confused since I didn't recognize the voice or the face. Obviously, as you can tell, I am no Sherlock Holmes. But I had some guesses such as a neighbor, an unknown family member, or a lost cousin, or who knows -- maybe the mailman (although he was clearly not in uniform). My mom motioned me over to come and meet the “stranger,” so I got up and sadly abandoned Spongebob. So here I was, looking up at this very tan hispanic man with light facial hair and buzzed haircut as my mom was explaining to me that he would be my stepfather. 

After I was introduced, I simply walked away while he was talking to me since I  was full of anger and trying to hide it. I did not like this one bit. I proceeded to walk into my mom’s room and lay on her bed facing the wall. She walked in shortly after and tried to get me to embrace this “stranger” whom  I clearly did not like. In the middle of her sentence, I cut her off with my yelling, saying things like “I don’t want him here because I like how things are.” I was very comfortable with life just being me and my mother, so when the time for change presented itself, I quickly wanted it to not exist. My mom left the room and told  the man to leave so that she could talk to me while he was not in our presence, thinking that I would probably be more compliant if he wasn’t around. This actually worked on my six-year-old self. I was slowly but surely cooling down from the rage inside that I was experiencing. She created a pretty good argument by mentioning things such as how he would help a lot with our financial issues to relieve some of her stress. Since I deeply love my mother, I always wanted the best for her, so I told her that I  would be nicer to this man who apparently was going to be my stepfather. 

The next day, he showed up again, and outside I looked like I was neutral with him but at the same time, inside,I wasn’t too happy with his presence in my home. But to my surprise, he had brought me a gift which was a Spongebob Lego set. This puts a smile on my face almost immediately since I was a big fan of this cartoon character. What happened next was even more of a surprise to me, I gave him a hug as a thank you for the gift he had brought for me. 

I changed my mindset in that very moment to a more accepting one instead of rejecting one. As soon as I saw him I was extremely bitter and judgemental, but as time went on I grew to love him and all I had to do was give him a chance.