Nowadays, a sorrowing fifty percent of marriages end in divorce, which makes the adolescents who have an intact family extraordinarily lucky. I know from personal experience that a divorce can lead to a pretty dysfunctional family. It can cause teenagers to stray to drugs or crime to get attention, or it can cause severe depression. As I said before, I know this from personal experience. My family and I have been through divorces. After I was born, my parents were divorced, and my biological father became like the end of a horizon, never seen. Since that time when I was a baby, my dear, sweet mother picked yet another man to be a bad father. The divorce that ensued many years later was tragic and painful. The divorce made me realize just how lucky I am to have such a great mother to take excellent care of my sisters and me through it all. Having such a good mother is rare, like winning the lottery. I just so happened to win that lottery—twice.

A year ago, I met a girl with brown silky hair, big brown shining eyes, and a smile that’s guaranteed to knock anyone’s socks off! She is the most beautiful girl on the whole planet. I have been dating that beauty for nearly a whole, blessed year. For the majority of the time that I am with her (which is majority of my time), we are with her family. After about the eighth month of our relationship, everyone was just saying that I was part of the family. I have special relationships with everyone in the family, and I treasure them in my heart. One of those incredible bonds that I have forged is with my girlfriend’s mother, Lisa. Even from the very beginning, this woman liked me because of how well I treated her daughter. “He’s very caring and mature, which is surprising for his age.” I was thrilled when my sweetheart told me that her mother had said those kind words about me. At that point in time, I decided that I was going to maintain my status with Lisa and make her like me even more. Therefore, I started by doing small little chores around the house without being asked and simply helping out whenever I could, running countless errands and watching my girlfriend’s little siblings. Of course, just as with all situations, the time that passed only made this kind and gentle woman appreciate me more.

I firmly believe in landmark moments, points in time where significant actions or thoughts transpire. One such moment took place when Lisa had a fight with her longtime boyfriend over the phone. She came out to the living room with puffy, red eyes, and a shaky voice and without thinking, I gave her a comforting hug. It was short but made the point that I thought of her as another mother and cared for her accordingly. Lisa understood; she knew that I was like her son. Around a week later Lisa was texting her daughter and I, and said she had to have a serious surgery in the future. She told us she would tell us more when she arrived home and she loved both of us.
Eventually, that dreaded surgery was at hand. Lisa’s issue had progressed far faster than expected. She was a month ahead of schedule, and the surgery was literally a matter of life and death. It had to happen immediately. The doctor who was spoken to on the phone said that it would be much faster to drive her to the hospital, rather than waiting for the ambulance to arrive and then turn around for a delivery. Lisa put her faith in me to safely deliver her to the hospital to save a life. That’s why I know that I am like a son to her. After all of the events that have passed, I truly have become a member of that wonderful family. My girlfriend’s siblings are now my siblings, and my girlfriend’s mother is now, thankfully, my second mother.