I was downstairs in the playroom with my sister Addie.

I heard my mom call, “Girls, come upstairs please!”

“Okay!” we yelled in unison. We ran up the stairs and stumbled into the living room where the sun beamed through the large windows. I saw my parents sitting on the big navy couch and noticed that my mom was crying. I was confused because I had no idea what was happening. We walked over to them and sat down.

“What’s wrong?” I asked

My dad responded, “Well, uhm, we are having what’s called a divorce.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s kind of like breaking up but for adults.” He said.

“Does that mean we won’t have a daddy anymore?” Addie asked. At this, both of my parents began to cry. I cried too because I was 9 and confused. Addie was only 6 at the time so she doesn’t remember much from then. About a week later my dad had found a condo and moved out. We still went to visit him but it was a little awkward for us since we didn’t know him very well. He traveled a lot for work so we spent most of our time with our mom.

…

7th grade was probably the hardest year for me mentally. Middle school had just started and my friend group was changing. I didn’t really know who I was or what my purpose was. Most days I would come home, procrastinate, go to swim practice, shower, and then do my work. It felt meaningless to me. Then, every other weekend I would go to my dad's house and I just felt better. I always wondered if I would still feel this way if my parents hadn’t gotten divorced. At my dad's we would spend time together as a family and I was happy. I remember a specific time when this hit me really hard. We had just gotten together with some family friends on my dad's side. We played board games and ate a ton of food. I hadn’t seen them in a while so it was really fun. Then Monday came around and I got stuck in the same schedule again. Monday after school I remember going home and just crying for hours in my room. I felt like nothing mattered. I didn’t want to live or die, I just felt stuck. But, I eventually realized that you can only control what you can control. It sounds broad but it’s true. You have no control over what other people do. So, you have to learn to work with what you’ve been given and make the best of it. This helped me cope with the divorce because it helped me remember to make the best out of what I have.