First the Worst, Second the Best

This is kind of an emotional piece...when I get upset, I write, and I needed to get this out of my system.

My father is a man who goes through phases. He's very committed to his most recent hobby for the short length of time it lasts, and then he's off to a new one. Target practice, camping trailers, alternative energy--his fascinations are always random and short-lived. When I was maybe five years old, and my sister was two or three, he decided he was going to sew new covers for the cushions in the camper we used for vacations. This, of course, required moderate skill with a sewing machine, so he took to practicing with scraps of fabric from around the house. One day he decided to make little purse-like things for my sister and I out of blue and white flannel which he found in my mother's sewing box. My sister and I watched him sew them eagerly, each doubtless wondering who would  get the first purse. I wanted it, until, silently, my five-year-old logic clicked in. I realized that the second purse would be of better quality than the first, because my father would have had more practice before making it. So I put my arm around my little sister and "generously" offered the first purse to her.

As I get older, it seems to me that this logic rings true, especially when it comes to my relationship with my family compared to my sister's. I'm the disappointment, the black sheep, the one who won't make it very far in this world, and she's the golden child, the reward for putting up with me. She's the second purse, and I was just practise.

Author's Note

Yeah, it's probably pretty overdramatic. I'm in an emotional mood.

Reviews

[xxxxSweetDreamsxxxx]

Ha! This was really good. Your an amazing writer!

[Norma M Sutton]

ah, but think about this. You were the practice piece, as was I. *grin, we survived being knit and raveled and knit and raveled. I think it's makes a stronger person.

[Skin]

With the combined acute 5 year old logic and your 'Generosity' fast forward.

Their disappointment is just that 'theirs' . . .You have no reason to follow suite.
1 litre of water will never fit in a half litre bottle.

As for your disappointment? . . . . That's a different matter.

[McGee]

I find this deeply personal and I often feel this same way about my family and I can't wait to go to college and be away from them. I think this is beautifully written because it has a bit of mystery to it in that one can't predict that the type of beginning it has will lead to the type of ending it has. The beginning would suggest that the piece is about your father but it's actually about you. I think it takes real talent to write a piece like this.