Ginger Ale and Chicken Wings

Upon request from a special person, I have been asked to write about my family.  I have to say that my family may be the largest collection of Asian nutcases ever to walk the Idaho state boundaries, but hey, you don't choose your family ;) you just love them.

In order to understand anything about my family, you really have to first understand Japanese people.  They are strange people really, I won't lie.  First of all, not all of us are computer nerds and math geeks, but there are a dang lot of us who can beat your butt at algebra and physics, not to mention a lot of video games you can't even pronounce, much less actually play ;)  Yes, we do have eyes that are a different shape, but it's kinda rude to make fun of how someone looks, so don't make any comments to us.  Most of us will be offended, just sayin'.

Now for some of the deeper facts about Asians.  Guys are dominant, girls are submissive.  It kinda sucks.  In the more traditional Japanese families, guys rule; they generally just expect everyone in the house to do whatever they want, when they want it done, how they want it done.  Women are generally expected to keep their opinions to themselves, make the family look good, and take care of the home.  In America, this thinking is a bit "outdated" and "unrealistic" as some people might say.  Here in America, we think of families as a group of people who all have an equal opportunity to rise and fulfill their dreams in life, no matter if they are male or female, a different color from the next guy or girl out there, or if they came from a family lacking in social status.  So it's definitely tough to live in a family of traditional Japanese thinking, when they seem to think the world is the same as it was 50 years ago.

One more thing I will say about Japanese people; they like to keep their lives on the down low a lot.  They like to present a family or just themselves as not needing help.  They are very proud people, who would rather die than fail, and heaven forbid they lose some of their honor by receiving help from someone who isn't in the family.

There's a LOT more to it all than that of course, but to keep it short, that's some of the basic foundations.  I will say that not all of my family is exactly like that, in fact, a lot of them are pretty Americanized.  There are a few who are kind of stuck in the past or in their own little Japanese mindset, but for the most part, we younger generations are pretty American.

My family doesn't include just Japanese though.  I am a mutt.  I have a white family as well who are quite another story altogether, which I will save for another time, I think.  Each family is definitely different, but the combination produced me, so I can't really complain too much, haha.

I think my family is a pretty fun group :)  We can have a pretty good time when we're all together and hanging out, though the family drama can be a little annoying at times, but really, who's family is perfectly drama-free?

I love my family, and I don't think I'd trade them for anyone else (okay, maybe one or two of them ;)

"I would rather feel loss, grief, and sorrow than depression; it is better to feel something than nothing at all, but nay, for me to feel this loss would be to have selfishness eating away at my heart; therefore, I sit in an everlasting battle for feeling and control of my mind, as I refuse to let go of that which needs me, and I it."

~T.A.~

I think there's a lot to be said about those who battle depression and actually pull through.  It's a tough thing to do, and I know that personally.  It's been a long time since I have been depressed, mostly as a result of a change of heart.
I found this quote actually in the drafts I had saved on my blog, and I realized that I actually wrote it about a year after my experiences.  To me, this quote isn't really something special, it's simply how I felt then, but I can say that there's a deeper meaning of the quote to me that I can actually connect to at this time in my life.  While I don't battle depression today, I do battle the feeling of wanting to give up in certain situations in my life, but the fact that people are either depending on me or need me unknowingly to be there for them, is often what reminds me that taking what seems like the easier road is not always best for everyone involved, just as someone who is considering taking themselves out of this world is most often making a selfish choice.