A few days ago, I had attended my in-law mother's funeral, but that wasn't even the highlight of my day. Firstly, I had always thought a burial and a funeral were the same thing, and I only got to realize that wasn't the case on that day.
But like I said, that wasn't the highlight of my day because for the first time in five years, I found myself in the same room with my dad and his siblings. You see, amongst my siblings, I'm the one person who hardly socializes with any of my dad's siblings because I always find it hard to communicate with them because I never find the right thing to say.
And I used to think that was the only reason until I got to my aunt's house, where we all were staying before attending the funeral. The moment I walked through those doors, I got attacked. All of a sudden it felt like I was a kid once more, and the crazy thing was that whatever it was that they were complaining about, none of them were willing to give me a chance to either explain myself or defend myself.
Every time I opened my mouth to talk, it was met with a fierce “Shut up!” from all of them. It got to a point where I just gave up because I realized that the only way I was getting out of this was to keep quiet and just let them say whatever it is they wanted to say. Because I could tell that they weren't interested in any explanation.
I ended up spending just a night over there with my dad and his sisters. They had tried to persuade me to stay for another night, but one night was more than enough to let me know that I needed to get out of that place.
The good thing about that entire experience is that next time when I start to feel bad about not visiting any of my dad's siblings, I get to use this latest experience as a perfect excuse for myself as to why I should just sit my pretty behind back at my house.