A Tale of Two Cities

Transcript

SureEyes: [00:00:00] You're listening to quintessentially mental a podcast hosted by SureEyes , please note that this host is not a mental health practitioner or professional, and this podcast is not made for treatment of any mental illness. 

[00:01:10] Hey, y'all this is quintessentially mental, the podcast, and I'm your host share eyes. Today's episode is titled a tale of two sisters, obviously. Inspired by a tale of two cities. If I think about the first line of that, or the first sentence of that book, if my memory, my memory doesn't fail me, you know, it goes, it was the best of times. It was the worst of times. And, and that sentence, you know, that, that opening line really sums up, I guess, the difference between my sister and I's experience.

[00:01:51] Growing up with our parents, um, we're five years apart. And so at each point in our early life, you know, we were almost an entire development phase ahead, or I was always a development phase ahead of her, um, eg. She was eight almost pre-teening and I was 13 entering my adolescence. You know, and, and that, that line, it was the best of times.

[00:02:20] It was the worst of times really reflects our experience of, of all our family, um, where, you know, I feel like I, I, I experienced the disintegration of my parents' marriage and that really affected me. Um, and she kind of lived through the aftermath of that. And so in this episode, we really want to dig into the experiences and influence of those experiences on our mental health.

[00:02:57] Of two sisters born of the same parents, um, who experienced different things. So stay tuned. 

[00:03:07]Spudcaster: [00:03:07] Baobulb.org is a podcasting platform and a medium for storytelling. This podcast is also available on all the major podcasting apps, including Apple and Google podcasts, podcast your life with baobulb.org ,

[00:03:23]SureEyes: [00:03:23] I guess, for you to truly understand the dynamics of my family. I need to give you a bit of history, bit have a bit of context. So I'm one of six kids that I know of. I say that because I would describe my father as a bit of a loose cannon. Um, Yeah. So I have an older brother who is a half-brother. So my mom's son, but not my father's son. Um, who's five years older than me, but I grew up with him as if he was a brother.

[00:04:01] Um, it's then myself, I am the oldest girl of both my parents. It has then my sister, who I referred to, um, she's five years younger than me and we share parents. Then we have another sister, who's technically a step sister, um, where it's my ex step mom. So my father's second ex-wife, um, her daughter and not my father's daughter.

[00:04:34] Then I have another sister who turns 13 this year. Um, again a half sister. So the said ex second ex-wife and my father's daughter. And then I've got a youngest daughter. I mean our youngest sister. And you see, even I get confused

[00:04:54] youngest sister who will be. Uh, seven this year. So my father is onto his third marriage, which is why, you know, um, we joke and say, this is the kids that we know of. Um, but yeah, so, so to give you a bit of insight, um, you know, during my, and my brother's kind of years coming up as kids and teenagers, we witnessed a lot of abuse.

[00:05:24] Um, Physical. Mental, emotional, psychological, um, which really obviously affected me. I didn't have a very good relationship with my father as I almost viewed it as how can you treat my mother like that? And I guess he struggled to separate his role as a father and his role as a husband. And so. The relationship between the two of us just integrated completely.

[00:06:00] And so by the time my parents got divorced. I was 18. Um, and my, my sister who's five years younger than me was only 13. Now during that time, you know, being my sister was, you know, the youngest at that time, the Apple of...