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 than 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 mother’s personality traits. Our home life, well it was the best! Our parents were together, they walked us and all our friends to and from school every day, 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 than 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. The church was packed they even projected it outside on the lawn and in other areas of the church so that those who could not fit had a chance to see. People were standing all along the stained glass walls and there wasnt a dry eye in the entire church. We sat in the first pew with my other on one side and my sister on the other. We spoke at the funeral reading a poem about love and loss behind the podium, switching every other line so we had a chance to wipe off our tears. We wore the same small black dresses, had our hair center parted, and wore heels for the first time ever(I think we were trying to look more mature). We stood together at the multiple viewings in the same church as the funeral, shaking thousands of clammy hands and laughing about the weird old people who told us time and time again how they hadnt seen us since we were yeh tall and holding there hands down to their knees. And at the burial we rode in the front limo together, alone, watching the hundreds of buses and cars and other limos following slowly behind to the burial site. Because my father was a fire cheif the whole drive there was lined with hundred of ladder firetrucks parked on either side of the road with their ladders extended and an american flag hung in between. We stood holding each others hands at the burial site hundreds of people watching our every move as the bag pipes played and the flag was laid ontop of the casket as it was lowered into the ground. 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. I turned on the light and sat up in my bed looking over at the dresser where black frames were filled with pictures of my father. we talked for four hours sending back and forth funny photos and songs that he had us listen too. “Remember that one time he bribed the drive on beach officer to let us on the over capacitated beach with a beer” or “Remember that time he had us dance to brown eyed girl and brick house on the bowling alley bar and we got kicked out”. We even texted our aunts and uncles and found the slideshow they played at the reception following the funeral and the voicemail he left on my phone the night he died “He chickadee im sorry I missed you, youre probably asleep, but I just wanted to say how much I love you and ill see you tomorrow, sweet dreams sleep tight dont let the bed bugs bite SIKEE!!!” . We cried and laughed and we realized that the connection we thought we lost was there still. Neither of us ever grieved when it happened but we know realized 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 at uconn 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 in her 12x12 dorm room on the top bunk. 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 alongside the woods down an abandoned road with maybe three total houses. By the end there was 3 of us… and Kristen had lost both shoes and I had lost my brand new grey UCONN sweatshirt. We stayed at the party/giant bonfire 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 badly. We are about five minutes from the dorm on a lit path through campus and kris leans against a weeping willow 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.
we still talk every day and the other day it was actually my father’s birthday I got lost in the graveyard because I hadn’t been in so long. After twenty minutes of looking for the plot I finally found it a tree had grown right over It so I had to clean off the fallen leaves to see the name on the flat black gravestone. It reads “Cris Hansen june 5th 2007, Son, Brother, Father, friend” Kristen and i hate it but we picked it out in 8th grade and thats not really something you can change. I called kristen as I laid down next to 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 bride’s mates, and stay best friends forever no matter what.
I guess i kind of wrapped this up at the end like a bow but its an open ended bow. There is so much more that will happen.
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 than 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 mother’s personality traits. Our home life, well it was the best! Our parents were together, they walked us and all our friends to and from school every day, 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 than 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. The church was packed they even projected it outside on the lawn and in other areas of the church so that those who could not fit had a chance to see. People were standing all along the stained glass walls and there wasnt a dry eye in the entire church. We sat in the first pew with my other on one side and my sister on the other. We spoke at the funeral reading a poem about love and loss behind the podium, switching every other line so we had a chance to wipe off our tears. We wore the same small black dresses, had our hair center parted, and wore heels for the first time ever(I think we were trying to look more mature). We stood together at the multiple viewings in the same church as the funeral, shaking thousands of clammy hands and laughing about the weird old people who told us time and time again how they hadnt seen us since we were yeh tall and holding there hands down to their knees. And at the burial we rode in the front limo together, alone, watching the hundreds of buses and cars and other limos following slowly behind to the burial site. Because my father was a fire cheif the whole drive there was lined with hundred of ladder firetrucks parked on either side of the road with their ladders extended and an american flag hung in between. We stood holding each others hands at the burial site hundreds of people watching our every move as the bag pipes played and the flag was laid ontop of the casket as it was lowered into the ground. 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. I turned on the light and sat up in my bed looking over at the dresser where black frames were filled with pictures of my father. we talked for four hours sending back and forth funny photos and songs that he had us listen too. “Remember that one time he bribed the drive on beach officer to let us on the over capacitated beach with a beer” or “Remember that time he had us dance to brown eyed girl and brick house on the bowling alley bar and we got kicked out”. We even texted our aunts and uncles and found the slideshow they played at the reception following the funeral and the voicemail he left on my phone the night he died “He chickadee im sorry I missed you, youre probably asleep, but I just wanted to say how much I love you and ill see you tomorrow, sweet dreams sleep tight dont let the bed bugs bite SIKEE!!!” . We cried and laughed and we realized that the connection we thought we lost was there still. Neither of us ever grieved when it happened but we know realized 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 at uconn 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 in her 12x12 dorm room on the top bunk. 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 alongside the woods down an abandoned road with maybe three total houses. By the end there was 3 of us… and Kristen had lost both shoes and I had lost my brand new grey UCONN sweatshirt. We stayed at the party/giant bonfire 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 badly. We are about five minutes from the dorm on a lit path through campus and kris leans against a weeping willow 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.
we still talk every day and the other day it was actually my father’s birthday I got lost in the graveyard because I hadn’t been in so long. After twenty minutes of looking for the plot I finally found it a tree had grown right over It so I had to clean off the fallen leaves to see the name on the flat black gravestone. It reads “Cris Hansen june 5th 2007, Son, Brother, Father, friend” Kristen and i hate it but we picked it out in 8th grade and thats not really something you can change. I called kristen as I laid down next to 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 bride’s mates, and stay best friends forever no matter what.
I guess i kind of wrapped this up at the end like a bow but its an open ended bow. There is so much more that will happen.