Enduring

It's amazing how much we can endure when we are young. This realization came to me as I considered a dilemma I faced when I was in 3rd grade. My father and stepmother had separated and were living in different houses because my father was fighting an alcohol addiction. I learned later that my parents expected to get divorced, yet somehow after a year they got back together and have lived happily together ever since. It was obviously my parents who had the most difficult time dealing with thins dilemma, but my siblings and I learned from this experience just as much as they did.

When I tell someone about this situation I faced, a pained and sorrowful _expression usually comes over his or her face. I guess that is the safest reaction to have in response to hearing of this dilemma that I faced; yet I do not feel bitter, sad or emotionally scarred from the experience. I think that rather stunt or scar my emotional development in some way, this situation provided me with a great learning experience that taught me valuable lessons.

Where I live there are a lot of well off, happy families. In this very comfortable world in which I have spent my youth, it's often easy to forget just how fortunate we are to have such ideal families. At the time I did not fully understand the situation, but reflecting upon our family dilemma later I realized how fortunate I am to be able to have both my father and stepmother living together. Before this experience I looked at marriage as just a thing that clicked and the couple lives happily ever after, this challenge that our family faced was like a slap in the face enlightening me to the fact that marriage takes effort from those involved.

I think the more important lesson I gleaned from this situation, however, was that addiction can destroy your life, but with effort and determination it can be overcome. I think that seeing my father come so close to losing