Moving On

Many people have heard of the fairy tale “The Three Little Pigs”, but if you ask me the story is better told by the wolf. This is how is what I plan to do. I will tell you the true story of our family and the relationship better all of us.

Our story starts out with a fire when we were just children. All of us survived the fire, but both Mamma and Maggie were permanently scarred by the event. I am known for having a personality of a strong independent woman; these personality traits helped me to overcome the traumatic event. Mamma and Maggie were not able to overcome the same traumatic event. Maggie was scarred by the fire both literally and figuratively. After the fire both Mamma and Maggie were never the same.

I observed Mamma as a mother trapped in a cycle of poverty and depression. She was seen stuck in the past, like every day was just a continuation of a never-ending nightmare. I wanted to better myself, move out of poverty and create the life I felt I deserved. I saw opportunities out in the world for me to get out of poverty.

I worked hard and became one of the first of my family to go and graduate from college. I began to beat the odds of coming from a poverty-stricken home. Mamma never really understood my ambitions to move out of the poverty home one day. Mamma always thought that I was running away from my past and my family, but the truth was I was moving on to better my life. I still understood where I came from and the family that raised me. I eventually decided to change my name, to come closer to my African heritage. This was a fad that was going around the world during this time; it may have been the reason why I changed my name in the first place. I now understand that the whole “changing of my name” was probably not the smartest thing to do, but I the process I learned more about my past. I think that it is important to understand you heritage and past, but do not live in it. So, when I came back to ask for the two quilts I wanted to preserve a piece of my past. Mamma didn’t understand that Maggie, my sister, could make her own quilts and didn’t need to ruin a historical quilt. I felt that passing Grandma’s quilt to Maggie was just reward her for living in the past. Mamma should have let me take the quilt so I could teach my children about our heritage. If there is anything I want you to take away from this story is learn your past, but don’t live it.