If I were to summarize my adult life with one lesson, it would be this: family sticks together like glue. No matter what happens in your life, no matter what friends come or go, you always have your family to turn to, for better or worse. I remember my mom saying this, “family sticks together like glue,” almost as a mantra for these last few years. It has truly come to define my life as an adult.
Many people ease into adulthood: the people who plan and prepare well in advance for their independence. I, however, was launched into adulthood, facing the harsh reality that the comforts and security I had always known could be taken away in an instant. The day after my graduation from East Carolina, my dad had a cardiac arrest. The following week in the ICU was the toughest week of my life. It was absolutely terrifying. But in that week of unknown, my family stuck together, and we were strong. I saw a strength in them that I didn’t know was there, and found a strength and courage in myself because of it. Because family sticks together like glue. Almost three years later, and my dad is healthy, and still here! While we’ve had our share of hardships since that week in the ICU, we have always come together, and faced the hard times with the kind of courage that comes from our unity.
As I began to approach this crazy, spooky family in this crazy, kooky show, this theme stuck out to me the most. Family is family. You can’t choose them, and sometimes they drive you crazy, but at the end of the day, family sticks together. While the Addams family may not look like what we’re used to here in Eastern North Carolina, the values they hold are much more familiar. When you strip away the creepy and the kooky, you see a husband and wife, a daughter and her father, a brother and sister. (Plus, who doesn’t have a weird uncle or quirky grandma somewhere in their family?)
I won’t say too much more, other than this: I hope you laugh; I hope you cry; I hope you find your family in this show, and find that no matter what darkness you face, family sticks together like glue.
