Modern Family

I used to press my face to the school bus window each morning and wave goodbye to my mother in the driveway. My sister would also wave pressing her own face to the glass of the front window of our home. She longed for her turn to take the big yellow bus to school. By this time, my father would have already left home for work, but not before waking me up to say goodbye.

Now, I glace in the rearview mirror as I pull away from our new house. My mother is not outside waving, but I know she’ll be up soon to pack the lunches for my kid half-brothers. My sister fixes her make-up in the mirrored visor of my car as we head off to school.

I assume my father is heading off to work, but he lives in an apartment, 3 towns over, and so I can’t be sure. His new wife and her children are most likely also preparing themselves for their busy day ahead. This weekend I’ll drive my sister and I over to their house and we’ll spend the night with them before going off to school again on Monday.

There are a lot of new faces in my family since my days on the school bus. We don’t fit around the same table, or even live in the same school district. But, when they wave me off to college, they’ll come together to say goodbye. And it’s the dysfunction of this family that I’ll long for. Because this is my family after all. I know they are the people who will greet me with open arms whenever I want to, or need to, return home. – Jose