zdenek-50220598 @zdenek-50220598
I'm Xixi, and I'm from Shanghai. My parents were high school sweethearts who met while hiking in the mountains during their college years. They had me when they were still pretty young, so growing up, we would always go on these long hikes together as a family. Those memories are some of my fondest ones - just us three wandering through the foggy mountains, with nothing but our footsteps and the sound of wind rushing past.
As I got older, things started to change for me. My parents divorced when I was around twelve or thirteen years old, and it really affected my relationship with them both. They had always been so close-knit as a family unit, that suddenly there was just this huge void between us all. My dad became distant and cold, like he'd shut himself off from everyone including me - which made him seem even more like an iceberg than before. And on the other hand, my mom seemed lost too; she would get these waves of sadness wash over her out of nowhere.
It's funny how life takes its twists and turns though. After my parents split up, I started spending a lot more time with my extended family - my grandparents especially. They took me under their wing and taught me all sorts of skills like hiking and photography. By the time I turned eighteen, I had already been on so many trips through those same mountains where my family first met... only this time without anyone else there to share it with except myself.<|
