dRaft 1
Kelsey Hansen
Creative non fiction essay
Growing up my sister and I were inseparable. We wore the exact same outfits, shared our friends, and lived in the same room(even though we had more then enough bedrooms in the house for this not to be necessary). Our personalities could no be different. She was fearless, reckless, and super intelligent. Me, I was creative, friendly, and a huge people pleaser. She was seen as the bad egg, more like my father. I, I was seen as the good one, taking on more of my mothers personality traits. Our home life, well it was the best! Our parents were together, they walked us and all our friends too and from school everyday, and our whole family was best friends. One day that all started to gradually change: our parents started yelling at each other while we were around, family dinners became less frequent, and our neighbors started babysitting us more and more. To say the least we were oblivious.
Then that horrid day came, the one that changes our lives and relationship forever. Our parents were fighting more then usual and we heard our names brought up multiple times. Eventually they called up down and had us sit on the big red couch, they say across from us looking sad and serious. We thought they were mad at us about swinging on the curtains again pretending we were Tarzan and started profusely Apologizing. My dad came over and kind of smiled softly and sat us on his lap. I sort of blacked out after that. My mom was crying and holding my sister at this point, my dad was still talking to us calmly he was also in tears. I have never seen my dad cry before. My sister stomped upstairs covering her ears with her tiny hands attempting to pretend she couldn't hear the bad news. I sat there for eternity until the silence broke my dad was repetitively saying my name "kelsey kelsey, do you understand?, are you okay? Do you have any questions"
My dad was diagnosed with cancer it started as pancreatic and spread to the lungs. He fought long and hard for 8 more years. My parents got divorced and my mom got remarried. I had just graduated 8th grade when he passed and my sister in sixth. We spoke at the funeral reading a poem, switching every line so we had a chance to wipe off our tears. We stood together at the multiple viewings, shaking thousands of hands and laughing about the weird old people. And at the burial we rode in the front limo together watching the hundred of buses and cars and other limos following slowly behind to the burial site. This was the last thing we did together... The last thing that connected us was gone.
My sister and I handled all of this very differently. She acted out started dating multiple guys at once and focused all of her attention on school and sports completely letting go of the family. I went into denial and went out more, went to Europe with friends, and starting failing all my classes. Life went on like this til about two weeks ago. My sister, Kristen is her name by the way, called me out of the blue. "Kel, I miss dad" I froze up it was midnight and we hardly ever talked let alone about anything serious. "Me too kris, me too" I replied. And we talked for four hours sending back and forth funny photos and songs that he had us listen too. We even texted our aunts and uncles and found the slideshow they played at the funeral and the last voicemail he left which was for us. We cried and laughed and we realized that the connection we thought we lost was there still. Neither of us every grieved about it but it was okay to be sad we had each other.
We started talking every day Kristen and I. I went up and visted a few weekend ago and it was amazing. I'll tell the funniest story about the weekend because so much happened. Kristen plays d1 lacrosse and we got to watch one of the games earlier that day in which she pulled her hip flexer. All was good and shortly after the post game tailgate we all started taking shots and drinking beers. We had to go to the lacrosse house for the pre game that night because it was an older teammates 21st birthday so we started about ten minutes off campus. All was great and we were having a good time until some guys came up and asked us to go to the track house with them. The only issue was that it was a 35 minute walk. So the alcohol was flowing and we were feeling very optimistic and agreed convincing about half the party to come with us. So we are rolled out squad deep(about 35 people) and began the journey. By the end there was 3 of us… and kristen had lost both shoes and I had lost my sweatshirt. We stayed at the party for maybe twenty minutes when we decided it was time to go home. At this point I am practically carrying her because her hip hurts so bad. We are about five minutes from the dorm and kris leans against a tree saying “well kels looks like we are going to have to sleep here tonight” It was so funny. I have never once seen her drunk and this was a whole new side to her. we finally made it back and woke up everybody in the study dorm by blowing up the air mattress at 3 am but it was an awesome night, and breakfast the next morning hungover with my mother was maybe even funnier.
So we still talk every day and the other day it was actually my fathers birthday I called kristen as I laid down at the gravestone and we talked for about an hour til i got kicked out. my cousin is a little weird and there was a creepy little fireman figurine with no eyes or arms left on the tombstone we agreed that she most definitely was the culprit. We even talked about boys and the new friends in our lives. We laughed about our dysfunctional family and our plans for when she got home next. I am not really sure what brought on this sudden closeness between the two of us but i was always envious of all my friends and their siblings. I regret that i didn't talk to her sooner about everything in my life and tell her how much I loved her but I am so glad it finally happened. We already have decided that we will strive to not end up like our parents and their siblings, and we will be each other brides mates, and stay best friends forever no matter what.
Creative non fiction essay
Growing up my sister and I were inseparable. We wore the exact same outfits, shared our friends, and lived in the same room(even though we had more then enough bedrooms in the house for this not to be necessary). Our personalities could no be different. She was fearless, reckless, and super intelligent. Me, I was creative, friendly, and a huge people pleaser. She was seen as the bad egg, more like my father. I, I was seen as the good one, taking on more of my mothers personality traits. Our home life, well it was the best! Our parents were together, they walked us and all our friends too and from school everyday, and our whole family was best friends. One day that all started to gradually change: our parents started yelling at each other while we were around, family dinners became less frequent, and our neighbors started babysitting us more and more. To say the least we were oblivious.
Then that horrid day came, the one that changes our lives and relationship forever. Our parents were fighting more then usual and we heard our names brought up multiple times. Eventually they called up down and had us sit on the big red couch, they say across from us looking sad and serious. We thought they were mad at us about swinging on the curtains again pretending we were Tarzan and started profusely Apologizing. My dad came over and kind of smiled softly and sat us on his lap. I sort of blacked out after that. My mom was crying and holding my sister at this point, my dad was still talking to us calmly he was also in tears. I have never seen my dad cry before. My sister stomped upstairs covering her ears with her tiny hands attempting to pretend she couldn't hear the bad news. I sat there for eternity until the silence broke my dad was repetitively saying my name "kelsey kelsey, do you understand?, are you okay? Do you have any questions"
My dad was diagnosed with cancer it started as pancreatic and spread to the lungs. He fought long and hard for 8 more years. My parents got divorced and my mom got remarried. I had just graduated 8th grade when he passed and my sister in sixth. We spoke at the funeral reading a poem, switching every line so we had a chance to wipe off our tears. We stood together at the multiple viewings, shaking thousands of hands and laughing about the weird old people. And at the burial we rode in the front limo together watching the hundred of buses and cars and other limos following slowly behind to the burial site. This was the last thing we did together... The last thing that connected us was gone.
My sister and I handled all of this very differently. She acted out started dating multiple guys at once and focused all of her attention on school and sports completely letting go of the family. I went into denial and went out more, went to Europe with friends, and starting failing all my classes. Life went on like this til about two weeks ago. My sister, Kristen is her name by the way, called me out of the blue. "Kel, I miss dad" I froze up it was midnight and we hardly ever talked let alone about anything serious. "Me too kris, me too" I replied. And we talked for four hours sending back and forth funny photos and songs that he had us listen too. We even texted our aunts and uncles and found the slideshow they played at the funeral and the last voicemail he left which was for us. We cried and laughed and we realized that the connection we thought we lost was there still. Neither of us every grieved about it but it was okay to be sad we had each other.
We started talking every day Kristen and I. I went up and visted a few weekend ago and it was amazing. I'll tell the funniest story about the weekend because so much happened. Kristen plays d1 lacrosse and we got to watch one of the games earlier that day in which she pulled her hip flexer. All was good and shortly after the post game tailgate we all started taking shots and drinking beers. We had to go to the lacrosse house for the pre game that night because it was an older teammates 21st birthday so we started about ten minutes off campus. All was great and we were having a good time until some guys came up and asked us to go to the track house with them. The only issue was that it was a 35 minute walk. So the alcohol was flowing and we were feeling very optimistic and agreed convincing about half the party to come with us. So we are rolled out squad deep(about 35 people) and began the journey. By the end there was 3 of us… and kristen had lost both shoes and I had lost my sweatshirt. We stayed at the party for maybe twenty minutes when we decided it was time to go home. At this point I am practically carrying her because her hip hurts so bad. We are about five minutes from the dorm and kris leans against a tree saying “well kels looks like we are going to have to sleep here tonight” It was so funny. I have never once seen her drunk and this was a whole new side to her. we finally made it back and woke up everybody in the study dorm by blowing up the air mattress at 3 am but it was an awesome night, and breakfast the next morning hungover with my mother was maybe even funnier.
So we still talk every day and the other day it was actually my fathers birthday I called kristen as I laid down at the gravestone and we talked for about an hour til i got kicked out. my cousin is a little weird and there was a creepy little fireman figurine with no eyes or arms left on the tombstone we agreed that she most definitely was the culprit. We even talked about boys and the new friends in our lives. We laughed about our dysfunctional family and our plans for when she got home next. I am not really sure what brought on this sudden closeness between the two of us but i was always envious of all my friends and their siblings. I regret that i didn't talk to her sooner about everything in my life and tell her how much I loved her but I am so glad it finally happened. We already have decided that we will strive to not end up like our parents and their siblings, and we will be each other brides mates, and stay best friends forever no matter what.