Rechallenge- Someone in my life opposite of me and how we make it work
The original challenge for today was to write about someone in my family I don't like. Well, I don't know about you but I kind of feel like, even if there were someone in my family that I don't like, that would not be a good thing to write and post, especially because I do not find the idea of World War III to be appealing. So, I turned to my faithful sidekick (honestly, I'm pretty sure I'm more her sidekick then her mine but since I'm the main character here, I get to tell it my way!) and asked for a different but similar challenge! So, she respond with "someone in your life who is your opposite and how you make a relationship with them work." I thought, That's a great idea! I love it! Then I had to think of someone...
So I thought....
and thought...
and thought...
and thought some more!
I couldn't think of anyone!
Finally I decided on one person in my life who, wasn't my complete opposite, but we're different in many ways. My Grammy. We lost her a few years ago at the age of 99, but for the entire time, since I was born until we had to say good-bye, she was a huge part of my life. She was who I came home to after school.She came and got me from school when I was sick. We moved next door to her when I was 4 and she started going everywhere with us. My parents divorced when I was eight and she became like the second parent in the house. Then, when I was 21, my mom, my son and Grammy all moved in together into one house (my grandfather passed away when I was in high school).
So, how could we be so different? I think the biggest thing was the generational gap. Things were so different for her. She was raised in a small town when prejudices were accepted. She had set of social rules and expectations that were unwavering, not to mention how set in her ways she was. She was a farm girl, going to bed early, getting up early and always happy to pile the table full of food, centering around meat and potatoes. She was a girl of the great depression, hell bent on saving everything! There surly has to be a use of it sometime, right?
And yet, she taught me so much! I mean, I may never be a morning person or have a compulsive need to hoard useless items that may be construed as trash. I may be fine with not always having meat on the table and I may love pasta (she didn't). I may never understand how she couldn't move forward with the times even but l learned more from her then I will ever be able to put into words!
So how did we get along? How did we become so close? We accepted each other. We loved each other. We knew that we were different but we saw it as a thing to embrace. I loved listening to her stories of earlier times. She loved listening to my stories. And we shared memories. At the end of the say, we were a part of each other. And I'm glad that we could take our differences and accept them while using them to learn from one another.
I couldn't miss her more, love her more or be more thankful for having her in my life. She was a light, a source of knowledge and always pushing me to be the best person I could be. She inspired me.
So, who's someone who is very different from you but you still have a relationship with? How do you make it work?