Paola Naccarato
Personal Essay
(706 words)

“Unbreakable Bond”

English 492-11
Mrs. Lagendyk
September 27th 2012

Unbreakable Bond
“Cousins are the first friends we have as children. No one will ever understand your crazy family like they do.” –Anonymous. This is so true except for the fact that as a little kid I didn’t have any cousins my age they were all older but that didn’t affect my feelings on family being so important, even the ones in Italy whom I have not met them all. My grandfathers immediate family on my dad’s side is extremely big, 7 siblings, 23 first cousins, 27 spouses, 35 grandkids, 1 great-grand child and its nowhere near done growing. I heard so much about them as a child, that made me want to meet them even more and it seemed that every family occasion we had to take a picture to send it off to Italy. Every couple of years a few of them come to Canada, seeing not even an eight of them gave me this essence of how it was there with everyone. It was a Monday night, the summer of 2011, I was at my nonna’s house. We had just gotten back from work (I was working with her at a manufacture for a week in July) and we were munching on some snacks, when the door opened and my beloved aunt walked in, I rushed to greet her and she right away explained to me how she was looking to book a trip to Italy, last minute...I was included in the thought but only 2 tickets were available, one for her and one for my uncle). I was devastated. The week went on and all I could think about was the trip! My parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents were all still trying hard to find another ticket for me since it had been my dream to go for as long as I can remember. Then come Friday night, I found it strange how my whole family was over including my father who usually played soccer Friday nights. While sipping on a glass of wine, my mom told me “How would you like to leave for Italy on Sunday!?”I felt all the eyes on me and I replied with “I already know,” since I thought she meant she was trying to get me tickets. Until it hit me I WAS GOING TO ITALY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and like the emotional girl I was, I started to bawl my eyes out because in less than 48 hours I would be on my way to the beautiful beach of Calabria, Italy. At this point I had spent a good week there and only after a few hours of meeting them we were already so close and I felt at home. Looking around at everyone I always noticed the