jj115 Difficult+Choices


 * The Big** **Decision**

Although I have made many hard decisions so far in my life, there is one in particular that stands out from all the rest. It was deciding whether to help a family member or not help.

For the first eight and a half years of my life, I was an only child. Then, my little sister, Ava, arrived and my whole life changed. Four months after that, my cousin, Ashley, was facing a very hard time and was in a desperate situation. My parents struggled with what to do in order to help and were very concerned about disrupting our family, me in particular. When they asked me how I would feel if Ashley moved in with us, I said, "I would feel too stressed out to have two new family members in my life". Suddenly, all the attention that was given to me would need to be spread among three of us! So they were leaning toward not asking her to live with us.

It was a difficult choice to make but after long consideration, I changed my mind because there was a family member in trouble, and I wanted to be a good person by letting her come live with us. In addition, I feel strongly about helping people who are in need and Ashley was in great need. Also, Ashley was very upset and cried tremendously because she wanted to live with us and grow up to learn how to be independent like my parents.

The transition of Ashley moving in was very arduous but it turned out to be quite great. In the beginning, Ashley was very depressed and wouldn't talk to me or anyone else for at least a month. Slowly, she became more social and fit into the family. She made it through her senior year of high school at a new school and went through all the work of applying to colleges. I think that she is very close now to being independent because she is now a junior in college and is doing well and not getting into any trouble. She also has a job and has been saving money, has learned how to drive and has a car now.

Well, it has been almost four years now, and I love my baby sister, and I think of Ashley as my big sister. Although I have gone from the one and only child to the middle child, I would not have changed my decision for anything. My decision was the hardest decision that I had to make, but I thought that if I were Ashley, I would want to live with my family too.