Women, Phenomenally

This Saturday Erin and I will be making the trip back home. No, not the one around the corner from my office, the one nestled in the middle of nowhere, my hometown. I'm extremely excited to see the family and friends I haven't seen in so long it's almost embarrassing. I'm also nervous.

The last time I saw my mom which was just over a year ago, one of her first comments to me was "I thought you were working out." I'm not trying to make her look bad. I'm giving an example of how my family (my mom, my sisters, and myself) have interacted for as long as I can remember. We have disguised our words as meaningless jokes and hurled them at one another. I like to think that we truly thought it was harmless at the time. That somehow we didn't understand the power words have. Sure, it makes us look silly, but that is better than the alternative of looking mean and hurtful.

It wasn't until I ventured out on my own that I began to realize that not all families communicate with mean jokes. Not all families torture one sister about her big thighs or another about her small breast. I have lived outside of the realm of daily interaction with my family for almost ten years. In those ten years, I have learned that words have the power to shape a person. Many of the things I have thought about myself and currently think about myself were formed by the words my mother and sisters spoke to me. To be fair, good things were spoke as well. I was praised for my mad clarinet playing skills and what they saw in me that was beautiful. Those words helped to shape me too.