Not Your Typical New Year’s Fireworks
A few years ago, my parents decided to visit my uncle (my dad’s brother) and his family, whom we hadn’t seen in almost a decade, in Berlin for New Year’s. Of course, as it was meant as a family vacation, that meant my sister (eighteen at the time) and I (a twenty-year-old woman at the time) were to come along, as well.
I was a bit miffed because I had wanted to spend New Year’s with my girlfriend of several years, but alas, I was told I could always do so the next year even though my girlfriend and I had already made plans. Still living at home with my parents, I was sadly made to jump at their command.
During dinner at my uncle’s place on December 30, this happened.
Mom: “[Sister], remember to pack [random item] before you go to bed later.”
Sister: “It’s fine. I already got everything and am ready to leave early tomorrow.”
Me: “Um, leave…? To where?”
Sister: “Huh? Back home, of course. [Her Boyfriend of merely a few months] and I made plans for New Year’s weeks ago.”
Me: “What?! But so did [My Girlfriend] and I! What’s going on here?”
Dad: “Oh, calm down. She told us weeks ago about her plans, so we offered to book her a flight back home on New Year’s so she can spend family time with us first and then celebrate New Year’s with [Her Boyfriend].”
I was already mad but now became positively furious.
Me: “So, you are telling me that you offered to fly [Sister] back home to spend time with her boyfriend — whom, I remind you, you hate — but when I told you about my own New Year’s plans with [My Girlfriend] literal months ago and asked if it was okay if I drive back home at my own cost, you said no?!“
At that point, my uncle and his family, who had watched this go down at the dinner table, suddenly turned on my parents.
Uncle: “You did what?!“
Aunt: “That is so not okay! This is insanely unfair to [My Name].”
Mom: “But this was supposed to be a family get-together! We can’t just have [My Name] run off in the middle of it!”
Uncle: “So, you force her to stay here when she has other plans and places to be, but for some reason, those rules don’t apply to [Sister]? No way. [My Name], go pack your stuff. We’ll get you back home by tomorrow evening somehow.”
I got up, in tears from frustration but also relief that my aunt and uncle were standing up for me, and went to pack my luggage. My uncle joined me after a while and told me that my parents absolutely refused to pay for my trip back home even though they had paid for my sister’s. Their reason was that last-minute plane tickets were triple the price, and they claimed that the planes would be fully booked then anyway. Of course, I point out that none of that would have been an issue had my parents not decided to try and go behind my back like this and just allowed me to get a ticket home weeks ago.
My uncle agreed with me and showed me the printout of a high-speed train ticket he had gotten me instead — at a ridiculously high price that HE paid so my parents wouldn’t be able to use it as leverage against me later.
To cut this story short here: I caught a bad cold that night but still got up at an ungodly early hour to catch the train. By the time I arrived at my girlfriend’s place that afternoon (after the worst train ride of my life, but that’s a story for another day), I was almost too sick to stand. My girlfriend kept me at her place for almost two full weeks to nurse me back to health; it turned out I had come down with pneumonia.
My uncle and I have fallen out of touch again over the years, and sadly, last I heard, he was mentally abusing one of his own two daughters — which, ironically, my parents spoke up against. And while my parents’ and my relationship is very good these days, I will never forget the way they treated me back then — and my parents, to this day, will immediately deflect when this story comes up.
