In the beginning I couldn’t stand my family. After my parents divorce there was constant fighting and I didn’t know if anything would ever return to normal again. Everything changed when Aaron, my soon-to-be stepfather came along. When we first met him both my brother and I thought we were going to hate him. Considering our young age and going through our parents hard divorce we were pretty resistant to change, and we were not about to allow anyone besides our own father to act like one. That is, until we actually let Aaron into our lives. The first time Max and I met Aaron was in our home on my eleventh birthday, Christmas-day. He was big, tall, and maybe a little intimidating. He had bright blue eyes, and a scruffy beard. His personality came off shy although he looked rough around the edges. Max and I refused to speak to him making for a very awkward first meeting situation. However, the more time he spent with our family the more talkative he became, and we came to the conclusion that he wasn’t so scary after all. It did, indeed, take a while for us to accept him into our lives while not wanting to replace our own dad, but it became easier over time. Aaron was a huge Iowa Hawkeye fan, and had a kind-hearted yellow lab he even …show more content…
It was perfect weather, not hot enough to sweat and not cool enough for a jacket. The sky was nearly black but I could still see radical shades of orange, purple, and pink in the far distance. The dark ocean water was beginning to move rougher and rise higher while white lightning crackled over it. I could hear the thunder rumbling as our family stood out on the shoreline waiting for the storm to brew. I remember Aaron looked down at me and said almost out of the blue, “You know what Alissa? You’re going to go to Iowa and prove them all wrong. You’re going to show them you’re capable of anything and you’re going to do great things with your