When my father told me he was dating someone and wanted me to meet her, I was relieved.My dad's love life was fairly peripheral to my childhood. His job took him away from home, and he kept small flats wherever he was working that year. His love life stayed with his work life, and my childhood home

I had my reservations about entering the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. My grandmother coerced me into entering the program. Right off the bat, we were interviewed, made to watch a safety video and given a questionnaire. Honestly, I had no idea what my interests were and checked just about

While we were growing up, my younger brother and I never, ever got along. I’m not sure if it was a complete personality clash, the incessant sibling need to piss each other off, or a combination of the two, but it was known by all for many years: Jessica and Matthew do not get along.The fact that

When I got word that my father had passed away, it had been in a cold, awkward, impersonal email days after the fact. That wasn't surprising; "cold, awkward, and impersonal" described our relationship to a T. Months later, I sat in a lawyer’s officer, ostensibly to learn about Dad’s will. I

I grew up without a mom. She was physically there, unwillingly and absentmindedly, for the first 19 years of my life. Although her disappearance nearly two decades ago seemed sudden, I suppose she disappeared slowly over a long period of time. When I was little my mom was my Wonder Woman. She was