Episode 82 – Same House, Different Exits..

Funny how you can grow up under the same roof, eat the same food, breathe the same air, and still end up on entirely different planets.

I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. How the two oldest in our family turned out so different to the two younger ones. Not that any of us had it easy, mind you. We were all fed from the same hand. But it’s what you do with it, isn’t it?

Fanny, well, I swear she arrived on this earth plane already wired for survival. That one didn’t need teaching. She knew which side her bread was buttered on before she could talk. Learned the game, played it well, and made sure to keep herself tucked safely on the side of whoever held the power at the time. If it wasn’t Mammy, it was Daddy. If it wasn’t them, it was Bully. She didn’t question the rules because they worked for her. And for people like Fanny, safety was more important than truth. God help us all if she ever has to face herself.

Bully, ah, there’s a streak of something cold in that one. Always was. Some people are born that way. I used to wonder if it was something he learned, but no. He came here carrying it. Control was his comfort, cruelty his currency. He figured out early that the way to avoid being hurt was to be the one holding the stick. And when our parents’ grip on the reins started to slip, he snatched them up like it was his birthright.

Then there was Saul and me. Neither of us had the stomach for it. I left as soon as my legs would carry me. Ran towards something, anything, that wasn’t that. Saul went the other way, straight into the army. Different roads, same instinct: Get out. Stay out. Save what you can of yourself.

The truth is, families like ours don’t talk about this stuff. They paper it over with Sunday dinners and polite silences. Pretend it was all fine. And the ones who left? Well, we’re the ‘difficult’ ones. The ‘different’ ones. The ones who wouldn’t play by the rules we never agreed to in the first place.

But here’s the thing no one says out loud:
We all grew up in the same house.
We just chose different exits.

And some of us are still looking for the key.

Lesson of the Day:

You don’t have to become what raised you.

Just because you grew up in a house full of silence, power games, or unspoken rules doesn’t mean you’re bound to live by them. Some people stay because it’s safer. Some people conquer the system. And some people walk away and build a life of their own making.

It’s not about who was right or wrong. It’s about who decided to heal.
About who chose freedom over familiarity.
And about having the courage to say, “That cycle ends with me.”

If nobody told you today, you’re allowed to leave the old stories behind.
You’re allowed to be nothing like them.