When we all come Together

_{photo by Sergey N}

In as much as I don't like to talk about it, I come from a family where everything is done separately. You see, growing up as a kid, we had lived most of my childhood in the trenches, a place where we didn't even have enough space to lay our heads at night, not to talk of a space for the dinning table.

So whenever it was time for breakfast, lunch or dinner, we all ate wherever we wanted to. And this included either in the house or at my mom's shop that was located directly in front of our house.

And to us back then, eating together wasn't exactly something we felt was important, what mattered the most was that we all had food on our plates to eat.

But then we got blessed and moved out of the ghetto, to a three bedroom apartment to be exact, a place with enough space to fit in a huge dinning table that could accommodate a family of six, and yet no one made use of it, not even my old man.

You see, personally, I've always been that kid who always enjoyed his own company and would most times spend the entire day in my room, unless I was called outside to go on an errand. And so, whenever my mom was done cooking, I would go to the kitchen to get my meal and then walk back into the room, while the rest of the family would sit in the living room with their food.

But to be honest, I didn't do all that mainly because I enjoyed being alone (I mean it was part of the reason but not entirely it), I had mostly preferred to be in my space simply because I noticed that the only time everyone has something to say about you is when you all are gathered together in a room, either seeing a movie together or eating together and that was the last thing I wanted, my dad and mom talking about me.

And this was simply because I knew that if they did, I would end up getting in trouble because that is the only direction discussions like that goes to.

Anyways, we eventually moved out of that house to a much more bigger house and I remember the first time I had arrived at that house from school. They had served me dinner and I had happily sat at the dinning table alone to eat, but something about that experience just didn't feel right... For some reason I found myself missing the vibe I get from either sitting on the floor to eat or sitting on my bed with the doors to my room closed.

That was the last time I made use of the dinning and it's been more than three years now.

If you ask me, eating together on the dinning table as a family has a way of strengthening the bond of that family because y'all are doing something together. Unfortunately, from where I come from, we all eat separately and don't see it as a big deal.

Does that affect our communication, not really, maybe due to the fact that it has always been this way... But if you ask me, I'm sure that things would be 10 times better than they are now if we do decide to eat together during every meal.