I'm Glad My Mom Died - personal reflection.

    People missing out on their childhoods happens all the time in aspects of either not being able to attend events with friends constantly or not being able to make friends in the first place. In I'm Glad My Mom Died it shows the extreme version of this spectrum where Jennette goes through the first chapters of her life with little to no contact with a normal childhood. More specifically she is thrown from dance practice to dance practice and form audition to audition with no time to enjoy what she wants. For me I this aspect of her life was something that I went through as well, yet, to a lesser degree. When I was younger my parents thought that having a sport to play year-round wasn't only normal but thought that it was also the only real way to stay healthy physically and mentally. Growing up there would be periods of about 2-3 weeks where I wouldn't be playing sports and where every other weekend and school week was spent on a field. When I was younger, I went through this without question as my parents knew what was best for the long term and I would "one day thank them". However, I noticed that due to my filled schedule I was often missing out on social events, which know that I look back, definitely affected my social life permanently. Days would go by where I would go through a school day, a school practice for either soccer or lacrosse, and a club practice for either soccer or lacrosse only to go home sleep and repeat the process all over again. What also didn't help is that I was expected to play at the highest division for my age, which on one hand was fun competitively, yet on the other hand, helped in developing an enlarging issue of anxiety and cognitive dissonance. As tournament after tournament, game after game, and practice after practice unfolded, I found myself stressing to an unhealthy extent, running through the what ifs and getting terrified of failure. It wasn't until the start of my high school days that I started to see that maybe my parents didn't really know my mental health better than myself and I started to question the ups and downs of continuing my athletic career. When I broke the news that I didn't want to continue playing lacrosse I got hundreds of questions with no correct answers that all ended up in the conclusion that I didn't understand, and I was overreacting in with my sudden urge to quit. Yet my urge wasn't neither random nor sudden and over weeks of convincing they finally gave in with the tradeoff that I would need to replace my efforts from sports to school (I accepted this offer in an instant). In my case, although there were some tolls that were taken on my childhood, I got off relatively Scott-free in comparison to Jennette as I, unlike her, was able to still enjoy many aspects of my childhood.

Comments

  1. AlexJanuary 26, 2024 at 7:45 AM

    Thanks for sharing this. It sounds like sports, for you, were more of a source of stress than fun - similar to acting for Jennette. I hope you're able to identify somewhat with her experience.

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