What Would U Do?(Final Draft)

What Would You Do?

June 19th, 2008! Graduation is just around the corner. She's 21 and is on her way to earning a bachelor's degree in Journalism and she can't wait. She has really grown over the years and is very anxious to see what life has in store for her. I've known her all of my life and I can't even begin to explain how proud I am of her. She has really come a long way... As a child, Angela had a great relationship with her family. She grew up in a household with her mother, father, and younger sister. Her parents loved her very much and she was always well taken care of. Angela also had a good relationship with her sister. They always went on family vacations and held family gatherings that everyone attended. It was two weeks before our high-school graduation and her mother told her that she had something very important to talk to her about. She told her that Angela was adopted. Angela couldn't believe it and couldn't understand how her 'perfect family' was all a lie. She went off to college and as time passed, Angela and her family became distant. However, something kept gnawing at her, telling her that she needed to know where she came from. So Angela began doing research and after years of searching, she eventually found her biological family. An agency set up a meeting for Angela to meet a woman who gave up a child many years ago. The woman, whose name was Karen, had a son a few years older than Angela and another son several years younger. Angela just couldn't understand why this woman would give her up but keep her other two children. Karen explained to Angela that when she became pregnant for the second time, she wasn’t stable enough to take care of a second child. She told her that it was a hard decision to make, but it had to be done. Angela wanted to hate this woman who she looked like and who she was supposed to call 'mom'. She really didn’t understand and didn’t try to understand Karen’s plight at the time. As far as Angela was concerned, she already had a family and no one could ever replace them. Tina was the mother who was there when Angela got sick in the middle of the night, when she went on her first date, and when she graduated from high school. Now Karen wanted to be apart of Angela's life and wanted to be forgiven because she wasn't ready to be a mother, for the second time. That just wasn't good enough for Angela. Karen invited Angela to her house on numerous occasions and told Angela that she wanted to catch up on what she missed in Angela's life. Angela couldn't do it and told Karen that she wanted her out of her life. Hurt but understanding, Karen told Angela that she was sorry for all that happened and told her that she would always be there for her if she ever wanted to talk. Now left out and feeling alone, Angela was upset at her family for not telling her the truth and angry at her biological family for not wanting her. She tried her best to ignore her feelings but I could tell that it was beginning to really get the best of her. It was one week before graduation and I wanted to celebrate and for her not to have such a heavy load on her shoulders. So I sat her down and told her that she should give her biological family a chance. I told her that I wasn't trying to be the one to heal her wounds but that I thought that she shouldn't cut them off completely. She told me that her mind was made up and that she would just stick with the only family that she knew. As we got closer and closer to graduation, I noticed that she wasn't acting the same. What I said must have really gotten to her....or at least I hoped. Graduation day was finally here and I walked up to her and told her that maybe it was a good idea for her not to meet her new family. I told her that if it were me, I probably wouldn't have wanted to develop a relationship with them either. She just looked at me, smiled, and told me that she appreciated me being there for her. A little confused by her response, I noticed that she looked different. She looked like the old Angela that I grew up with. She looked like my best friend again. While sitting and waiting for our names to be called, I looked over and saw both mine and Angela's entire family. Next to her mother, I saw a woman who I didn't recognize. When I asked Angela who she was, she told me that it was her biological mother. She told me that although she realized that it would take some getting used to, she was ready to develop a relationship with her new family. She knew that before she could take this next step in life, she would have to fill the void that only her biological family could fill. It was something that she could no longer run from. She loved the family who raised her very much and she found it in her heart to forgive them for not telling her the truth sooner. They would never be replaced. Yet, Angela knew that she owed it to herself to get to know the family she never knew she had......Her name was called and she walked across the stage as a college graduate. As I watched her, I not only admired her, I was proud of her and happy to call her my best friend. She helped me to realize that no one is perfect, we all make mistakes, and that it's no one's job to judge. The only thing we can do is continue to live our lives with no grudges and resentment and always remember that we can go anywhere we want to in life as long as we know where we come from.