My Choice

A warm autumnal day long ago

I broke free of my familial jail

Took a long ride north to where my adulthood sat waiting

It was a quiet ride,

One filled with questions and concerns

I must have answered but mostly I remember sitting there thinking:

Do Not Cry.

This is what YOU want.

Time to grow up.

I took so little with me.

I wasn't allowed a car or a phone.

And I wasn't allowed to come home until Thanksgiving break.

For years I bitterly looked back on that day as a memory of how much my parents wanted me gone. Which has always been true of my mother. 

But my Dad, he was stoic. He didn't let me see him cry. And he's man enough now that I have kids to have told me it was the worst day of his life. I regret leaving him behind. He's a good man. I just can't live with her and deal with her shit, so I left. He doesn't blame me....but does miss me and my family.