1 year ago
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This story first appeared on Daily Kos on Dec. 24, 2020, and its reception has cemented it as an annual holiday tradition. I was so touched this spring when first this tale of my seventh-grade Christmas was nominated, then won an honorable mention in the 20th Anniversary Koscars Personal Essay category.
This story is true, and it’s important to me, as it offers a glimpse into the extremes of life and how rapidly we can veer between them. We can find humor and warmth amid periods of trauma and violence. In the end, living in that shelter was awful, and my mother swore to me, when we left a few weeks after Christmas, that we’d never go back there.
If you’re thinking she broke that promise, you’re half right.
