Junior Jasmine Tsai has two full siblings, Joshua, her 14-year-old brother and Julianne, her 12-year-old sister, as well as two half siblings, Jaclynn, her four-year-old sister and Jasper, her one-and-a-half-year-old brother. Tsai has lived with her half siblings since they were born, which she states is the reason she holds a strong bond with them.
“I think because I was there since the beginning
, [knowing that they were my half-siblings] didn’t really have that big of an effect on me,” Tsai said. “Especially since they’re little kids too, it’
s hard to have anything against them.”
The difference Tsai sees in the relationship she has with her half siblings and the relationship she has with her full siblings is only due to their young age. Their relationships are all strong, but rather than the friendship bond normal siblings may hold, the relationship Tsai holds with her half-siblings are similar to that of a kid with their guardian as she feels an obligation to protect them.
“I think at the moment, [knowing we’re half-siblings] has no effect on [my half-siblings] because they’re so young, but they’re starting to realize that we’re gone half the time and that there’s other adults in our life that we live with,” Tsai said. “Later on, it might affect them more.”
Regardless, Tsai still believes they will all remain close, even in the future.
Sophomore Adrienne Nevitt and junior Bryce Nevitt are full blood-related siblings along with their sister, MVHS alumni (Class of 2017) Grace Nevitt. Unlike Tsai, the Nevitts’ relationships with their step-siblings, Bryan and Shannon, who are full siblings, were not as smooth in the beginning as they were introduced to each other as siblings at older ages.
The three Nevitt siblings were introduced to Bryan and Shannon as step-siblings in July of 2011, when their dad married Bryan and Shannon’s mom. Bryce and Adrienne attended the same elementary school as Bryan, so they all knew each other before becoming siblings.
“I had known Bryan since [kindergarten], so we used to hang out at the playground at school. We’ve always known each other, so [becoming siblings] was kind of like ‘Oh cool, we can hang out more, this is gonna be so cool,’” Bryce said. “But there were also some problems because he used to have some anger issues.”
However, Adrienne, on the other hand, was not very fond of Bryan in her elementary school days. As he frequently and easily got angry, Adrienne had thought of him to be an aggressive and mean person.
“When [Bryan] finally moved in, it was definitely kind of scary at first, and I didn’t really communicate with him much,” Adrienne said. “I hung out with his older sister, Shannon, a lot more than I did with Bryan since she was nicer. Me and Bryan never really had a good connection when we first started living in the same house.”
It took awhile for the Nevitts to adjust to the addition of their two step-siblings; they were put into psychological therapy to help them adjust to the big change. Bryce and Grace did not need much therapy and did not have as hard of a time adjusting, however, Adrienne, as the youngest of the three, found the situation especially hard to accept, and so she went through four years of therapy to help her overcome the difficulties that came along with the life-changing event.
As for the current situation, while Grace and Shannon are off at college most of the time, the rest of the siblings alternate living with their biological parents.
“We don’t really see each other as often as we used to,” Bryce said. “Before, our dad and their mom would want to want to make schedules that would let us be together as much as possible to let us bond, but now we just kind of do it by weeks.”
Despite a rocky beginning, over the years, the relationships the Nevitts had with their step-siblings slowly grew stronger, and their personalities have changed as they got used to each other. In addition, Bryan, though described by the Nevitts to have been a bit aggressive before, has changed too as he became more confident and calm.
“My personality definitely changed because I had to deal with two new people coming into my life at a young age,” Adrienne said. “I had to adjust and I think I’ve changed so that I’m better at dealing with people who have different personalities from me … I’ve become a more understanding person who’s able to deal with certain people now.”
Published on elestoque.org February 10, 2018. Full post on http://elestoque.org/adulthood/index.html
JULIA YANG 