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Laws of Life Essay, Addie Livingston

Maxim:  "There's no place like home."  Dorothy~The Wizard of Oz

Character Trait:  Thankfulness

I have just returned from being away from my family for six months, as I have spent the first half of my tenth grade year in Australia. What I learned the most from being away from my family is nothing can replace a family who loves you. Last year when I woke up in the morning, I knew my mother was there to make sure my clothes were clean and ironed and my dad was there to make sure I had a good breakfast. I eat mostly cereal in the morning and my dad prepares my brother's breakfast every morning, which is a culinary surprise for my brother because he never knows what my dad has in store for him. Sometimes it's a fried egg sandwich with bacon and grits and sometimes it's tuna fish on a bagel with a tomato on top and a hunk of sausage on the side. Believe it or not, as disgusting as that sounds, my brother eats it and likes it, but only if the tomato is fresh, ruby red fresh. But let's say in the morning I wanted a scrambled egg or something mundane like that, I know my dad would fix it and he would sprinkle the right amount of cheese, not to make the eggs gooey, but to make them cheesy, there's a difference. For my birthday one year, he fixed me Eggs Benedict. I don't know where he got the recipe, but all I remember, was it wasn't half bad.

Well after six months in Australia, I missed all of that. I missed the way we would haphazardly bounce off each other like pin balls in the morning. I missed the way we would scream at each other in the morning because somebody took the last of the hot water. I missed wondering how Mr. Howell, our principal, would be dressed each day. I missed Labor Day at my grandparent's house with my Uncle Charlie grilled and how my brother would be poking fun at my grandfather because my grandfather couldn't hear an explosion in the next room. My favorite prank my brother likes to do to my grandfather is to come into a room where my grandfather is and my brother will move his lips like he's talking when he isn't saying anything and my grandfather will scream, "What are you talking about, I can't hear you," and my brother will keep on doing it until my grandmother says, finally, "Well if you wore your hearing aid, you could hear us all just fine."

That's what a family is and that's what a family is about. And that's what I missed.
Families are not designed to be well-oiled machines that work perfectly each day. Families have to work to be efficient, but they need to have fun along the way. 'Okay, so you took the last of the hot water today, I'll take it tomorrow and you'll deal with it, okay?' 'What do you mean? You didn't replace the toilet paper. When the toilet paper runs out, put some more on; it's not a difficult concept.' 'Who put the empty jar of mayonnaise back in the refrigerator? The empty jar goes into the trash can.'

I didn't have that in Australia and I missed that. A family can never be replaced and a family can never be duplicated.

I love my mother, not because she gave me life, but because she nurtures me and I feel her nurture each day. I love my father, not because he sets limits, but because I understand now those limits will protect me; I feel his limits each day. A world without limits is a world of chaos. And I love my brother, not because he's a goofball, but he's the most creative goofball in the world, who works hard and studies hard and plays hard. I missed them. I'm the luckiest person in the world.

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