When I was six years old and my brother Gilbert was only about one, he and I were watching Dragon Tales and eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch on a Saturday morning like any other when my parents came into the room, both with a morbid expression on their face, and told us to turn the TV off for a moment. I knew, even as a six year old, that something was wrong. My mom, with a sad undertone to her voice, told us, “Hey guys your dad and I won’t be living together anymore. This has absolutely nothing to do with you, but we just need space.” My dad said, “It’s going to be ok because I am going to have a super cool new house and we will still be a family and I still love your mom we just won’t be living together anymore.” I wasn’t as surprised as most people probably would have been because I knew they weren’t happy together. I asked my mom if it was because they had been fighting so much and she said yes. My brother sat there just wondering when we could get back to our show and wondering why everyone seemed so upset.

My dad moved to a small one floor apartment in the Mission which was an enormous downsize from our three bedroom, four story house in Glen Park. I knew it wasn’t all bad because I’d get two Christmases and two rooms, but my parents wouldn’t do anything together anymore and I would be going back and forth constantly. I knew some of my friends’ parents were divorced but most of them had gotten divorced when my friends were really small and the children wouldn’t know anything other than a broken home. For me I had a memory of family vacations and events and I knew it wasn’t going to be like that anymore.

Recently my brother has decided he wants to be with my mom more. This is super hard on my dad and it breaks my heart. He is only ten so he doesn’t really know how much it affects my dad. A couple months ago my brother got really upset at my dad and he screamed at him, “I HATE YOU!” My dad called my mom and told her to pick him up. When my mom came she blamed it on my dad and started yelling at him and they said things I didn’t want to hear. I was sitting alone in my room listening to the whole fight. I had never actually remembered a fight between my parents so when I heard this one my heart felt like it was being ripped out of my chest. I never told my parents how hard that was on me, but at least things are better now.

 
  I was only six when my parents divorced but I still remember it now and it still impacts my life. It was one of the most difficult things I’ve gone through and it has affected me in positive and negative ways. It is a big part of my life and something I will always be affected by. Many peoples parents are divorced, I know that, but you don’t realise how life changing it is until it happens to you.Even today it still bothers me having to listen to my friends talk about their family vacations and their parents’ anniversaries. Its been hard to go from one house to another every other week. It isn’t as hard anymore because I know it's what was best for them and that they are both happier now, but I still get jealous of the kids who don’t have to worry about which house they’ll be at or which parent they’ve spent more time with. This is probably the biggest thing that's ever happened to me but overall I'm just grateful I have such a strong, loving family.