Moment
I don't remember all that much but I knew at the time that my parents had issues. My biggest fear had been them getting a divorce, because I didn't know what I'd do. I would cry and cry over the idea. So on this particular day I was dragged to church like any other. Even then, I didn't believe in what I was doing, but I went because I was told to. I don't remember the sermon but I remember what came afterwards. We were about to leave and my mother and father were arguing about something. I don't remember what. They said they'd take separate cars, so my siblings and I had to choose who to go with. That, I think, was the first time I had to make a choice. I was very close with my mom, but for some reason or another, I chose my dad. I'd never seen him as sad as he was, but I didn't understand why. My brother was in the car with me, my sister was with my mom. My dad has always put on a strong facade, so he came off as angry that day. I remember thinking I should've gone with my mom, I heard my sister got icecream. I didn't know at the time, but I now know that my dad had been in a depression. He was suicidal and checked himself into the hospital, and that's what they were arguing. Looking back, it makes the memory feel important. My dad is not a very emotional guy, and knowing he went through that only showed the extent to which our family was broken. It was the beginning of the end. (They'd later get divorced.)
Overall Narrative
The author presents as a highly anxious, dependent child whose immediate emotional world was consumed by fear of family collapse. They respond to adult authority with compliance and passivity, and their actions in the memory are shaped more by survival and attachment than by agency or confrontation. Although not hostile or perfectionistic, the author holds some wary distance toward their parents’ emotional honesty and interprets later events as evidence the family was fractured. Creativity and rule-bending are absent; instead, the moment reads as a constrained, emotionally driven snapshot of a child prioritizing safety and relational bonds over autonomy.