Introduction

    Right now, I live in Wingate with my dad and stepmom. At my dad’s house I have a younger brother and a younger sister, as well as two cats and two dogs. My mom lives in Mint Hill with my step dad and three step siblings, but they rarely have me over so I stay with my dad. Over the last few years, I’ve moved a total of 8 times between both of my parents, living in Wingate, Marshville, Matthews and Mint Hill across that span. My family is not close at all. My mom has nothing to do with me, dad’s side is always either busy or having some sort of disagreement so we rarely interact with one another, and my parents are always trying to start pointless drama around the house, so I’m not extremely close to them either. Religion is somewhat important to my family, but it’s typically sidelined if anything else comes up that they deem to be more important. My stepmom is definitely the head of my direct family, as everything we do is typically done to her liking. We used to do a lot of vacations and trips, but between financial constraints within my nuclear family, as well as disputes between several members of my more distant family (who would normally pool money for a large family vacation), we don’t do much in terms of traveling anymore. My family has both English and German roots, falling into the caucasian ethnicity.

    My extended family isn’t tremendously spread out (they all live within the Charlotte region), but we’re still a decent ways away from one another. None of them live (or have lived) in other countries at any point in time. My grandparents somewhat serve as the “heads of the clan”, because they not only live in a central location compared to the rest of the family, but they also somewhat facilitate my family (they plan reunions, always try to keep tabs on everyone, and just make sure we’re all doing well). My family doesn’t have any particularly impressive members. They’re relatively well connected across this end of union county, but not enough to be considered “famous”. If you count very distant family, Jesse Helms was technically a part of my family, but extremely loosely.

    One of my family’s most notable traits is our sociability. No matter who it is, we typically try to be cordial to others, and converse (typically too much for our own good). Another trait my family tends to be known for is bad tempers. If something is done that offends or wrongs someone in our family, they’ll most definitely hear about it. Another trait about my family that plays into both of those things is that we’re typically very honest. We try to be real with people, and treat things as they are. My family is also generally conservative, but there are a few exceptions in some of the more distant branches.