It’s the middle of summer in Sacramento and its dark and cold out, but we don’t mind, as my cousins and I lay juxtaposed along the trampoline. There are trees all around us and stars that fill the sky as we talk about our lives with each other. Its silent and you can only hear our laughter throughout the backyard as everyone lays asleep.

I’d talk to them every time about my mom, my dad, my aunts, my uncles, and basically everything. Kathryn and Jillian were the two people I considered my sisters. We shared so much and so little in common at the same time. We’d fight and argue, but in the end we’d find ourselves at that trampoline, just bouncing back to normal.

Every time we see each other we find ourselves on that trampoline. Ever since that summer when I was 12 we find more things to say and more to ask each other. The night sky is different than Reno’s, and the silence there is ever lasting. This was a place we called our own and a place we used to get away from it all. Sometimes we’d jump a joke, but most of the time we’d just lay and wonder about life and our families. We’d take this time to understand and help each other. Three cousins that live so far away, we couldn’t be any closer, than if we lived close together.

We all shared the feeling of separation of family in different forms. Jillian’s dad left her and her mother when she was born, so she lives with her single mother. Kathryn’s parents disconnect her, because she’s known as the problem child. And I physically disconnected myself from both my families, by moving away to Reno. We all deal with it differently and we’re known as different people.

Our families label us and it’s kind of sad, but it’s the truth. I am known as the child who has nothing, but everything at the same time. They treat me different and everyone knows that it’s because they feel sorry for me. In a way I am known for being “the good kid”. Jillian is kind of ignored by everyone because she’s different and known for being, just there. Kathryn is the problem child and known for being “the bad kid”. In the end we have different labels, but the same feelings inside. We realize we’re not who they label us to be, but who we make ourselves out to be.

So every time we go out to the trampoline, we think about our labels and try to make sense of it, we try to think about our problems and try to solve them, and think about all the good times and try to keep them going. Just to prove to the world that three completely different people, with completely different paths can all have the same connections. Because these are…our lives, our voices, and our spot.