THE SPACE BETWEEN US

Leaving home and not knowing when you’d return can be really scary sometimes especially if you have a beautiful family you will be leaving behind. I’m very sure those astronauts that returned after several months must have even signed a contract just incase they don’t make it back alive. Just like those astronauts and many others who have had reasons to leave their loved ones for a long time, I have also been there before. Well, mine wasn’t for something that could take my life or something bad. It was the time when I had to complete a one year academic program.

Growing up as a little girl, for some reasons I have always loved the idea of traveling, moving from place to place. I loved my family and during the first early years of my life, I was privileged to most times travel with them and that was because I was still a child who couldn’t travel on her own. But the moment I became an adult, things changed. At that time, my sister was already in the university and it was just my dad, my younger brother and myself. Since my dad was not always around and my sister was in school, my brother and I became close friends and we would always sing and play games together.

When I left for that program, my brother was the most affected because his partner in most things was leaving. Well, after that day, my brother didn’t care much about it again, lol. Thank goodness for WhatsApp, we would sometimes chat with each other and share funny stickers, laugh about it and say our goodbyes until the next time. I was quite busy with life in school since I also had to work to make some little pocket money to keep me going. My dad misses me because he will randomly call me on most days and complain that I don’t even reach out to him. My sister and I always communicate every now and then too on WhatsApp.

When we were apart for those months, we all survived like we didn’t even care about the fact that we are apart but when we all get an opportunity to be back together, we try to make up for those times we were apart from ourselves. There are so many things we do together to rekindle that bond between ourselves. For my siblings and I, we most times use that time to sing together, go to places together, eat together and chat about different things. But with my dad, since he is most times not around, we fix a day to go out, particularly Sunday and we spend some quality time together.

But in response to the question, the first thing I do most times when I return from a trip is to check the kitchen to see what they prepared for me and then, sometimes I try to also get something edible for them too. After knowing that there is something nice to eat in the kitchen, I chat a little more with them and then go freshen up to eat my delicious meal, hehe. And after I’m done eating, depending on how I feel, I will just rest a little and then continue the chit chat with my family when I wake up.

All I try to do is make the most of the time I get to spend with them and it has always been a beautiful time with them. Sometimes, I intentionally want to stay away for a long time so we can get the time to do some things together which we unconsciously only do when one of us have been away for a long time. I believe that space between sometimes is needed because it gives us the opportunity to always keep the connection buzzing.

This is my response to the thoughtfuldaily prompt #36.

Thanks for reading through. ❤️