"Will Christmas traditions be the same?" by Kayla M

It was over a year ago, the day I turned 17 years old. During this time, it is usually an excitable time for me. Being born within the month of December, celebrations for my birthday and Christmas were always amazing. Our traditions we have created over the years as a family have been pretty constant. We would always every year start decorating for Christmas at around late November, almost before Thanksgiving starts. My sister and I would work together, bond, and have fun when decorating our Christmas tree. Every year we would have a different theme in colors. Blue and white, Green and pink, red and gold, even sometimes almost a rainbow theme. My dad would be outside decorating the outside of the house with Christmas lights making sure our house would shine like all the others around our block. My mom would be wrapping presents for all of our close family and friends as she is the only one with the heart to do, risking our funds for the happiness of others. On Christmas eve, we would attend Church due to us being a Catholic family and later we might join our friends Christmas or even New Years parties, and soon in the night we would have a feast of mostly Filipino food. On Christmas day, my sister and I would usually run down the stairs to open our presents everyone got for us and enjoy our time with our parents, as they are not getting any younger. We can be watching Christmas specials, baking cookies, or just hanging around each other in general. Not only does December correlate to our favorite holiday of the year, it is usually the time I grow older. I remember being happy becoming a year older, having fun having twice the presents I would get during the winter holidays, and also having to celebrate my birthday and afterwards looking forward to Christmas around the corner. Also enjoying the celebrations my family would throw to me, making me feel special and happy. As I get older though, I can’t help wondering, once I turned 18 and maybe even beyond that and maybe have to leave the nest soon...Will these traditions we built over the years be different or even worse be gone once I grow older? These thoughts have appeared, once my 17th birthday rolled around last year on December 13th, 2019. I was a year away until I became a legal adult here in the U.S. and I already can feel like I was being treated differently. My parents treated me as if I was way past the age of 17, even though they claim I was still their little girl, just much older now. My little sister is also getting older now, now being the age of 8, and we no longer have a baby or even a toddler in the house anymore. I can even feel like I am getting older now too and thoughts started playing in my head. Like, am I even ready to be an adult in the year of 2020? Will I be able to help out my family even if I am away from college? Will our traditions stay the same and can I be there for them for the holidays? These very traditionsI truly care for my family and want to continue to do this with them even if we are growing older and I know we need each other, but what if future years will stop me from doing that? For a while I have pushed these thoughts away, trying to bring myself into blissful ignorance. 

A whole year later, it is December once again. Things have been different since the start of March as everyone knows. To me, December was something I was looking forward to as I was finally becoming 18. These thoughts I felt a year ago started coming back, around early November. I was feeling as if everything would be different and I won’t get to live my last bit of my childhood or teenagehood before transitioning, until the sheer determination of my mother called out to me. Seeing that she knows that things are harder to do than we usually do, but seeing her not back down on these traditions brings out the determination within me to continue what we practiced over the years. We did everything we usually do to the best of our abilities, seeing everyone happily do our yearly tradition, brought a smile to my face and sheepishly feeling guilty that I even doubted my family. They still want to continue while I was here thinking that once I turn 18 that everything will end. I now don’t need to worry as much as I did back last year. Now it’s my birthday once again and my celebration was great, I finally transitioned into adulthood feeling much happier that I can still feel like continuing these traditions that we hold so dear. Knowing my family is still happy doing these every year, just brings a smile to my face.