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From Two to Three
Discovering a Father By Ashley Chin
"Nothing will ever be the same."
"She'll love him more and take his side."
"I'm just an afterthought now."
Oh, the beliefs of a young teenager attempting to understand the changes in her life. Knowing nothing but a life of two, the entrance of a male, adult figure made three a crowd. These thoughts wrangled through my mind when Robert entered my life.
Robert, a lifetime bachelor, did not have any children and cautiously crept into unknown territory as well. Looking back, I wish I made an effort to see things from his perspective, but I was a young teenager with tunnel vision. I saw my world and how it changed drastically, oftentimes unfairly from my point of view.
Like many brooding teenagers, I committed to self-isolation. My mother tried to lure me from my bedroom, roughly requesting my presence for dinner or to watch television with her and Robert. I stood my desolate ground and stubbornly resisted. My jealousy toward this man and anger toward my mother overwhelmed any prowess of rational thinking I might have possessed.
The next two years proved difficult. Forced to change schools during the eighth grade, my feelings toward both adults in my house coarsely grated the emotions of all. Brief discussions occurred between my mother and Robert: Did they make the right decision? Will I ever adjust to this new environment? All I could think about was how I would get back to my friends at my previous school.
Time went on, and the hopes of returning to my school morphed into an old faded T-shirt thrown into the black hole of my closet. Grudgingly, I broke through the protective barrier of my bedroom and ventured outside my kingdom of solitude for dinners and evenings together. However, I viewed him as Robert, nothing more; my uncompromising attitude refused to give an inch. Robert and I simply learned to tolerate one another during that period.
