Beginning of Essay
Christmas 1996 promised to be one of the best times of my eighteen-year life. I was on my own in Florida! My parents had moved to Indiana earlier in the year and I managed to stay in my tropical paradise. I had a nice job, a nice apartment and best of all a b ....

Middle of Essay
.... blinked on and off all night. I could hear other people in the house milling around or talking but I felt like an intruder if I joined in. My parents called once a week and I talked to my boyfriend everyday for awhile. A feeling of distance seemed to come between my parents and I. After the initial 'how are you' and the weather conditions at each location there just wasn't much to say. Instead of independent I was beginning to feel detached. When my parents asked what I wanted for Christmas I went blank. I felt blank. Christmas was all around me lit up in neon Santas, reindeer and palm trees covered in lights, but I had no emotional thou ....