It’s interesting how early you start learning to adjust without thinking about it that way. As a kid I spent time moving between my mother’s apartment and my aunt and uncle’s house, and each place had its own atmosphere. In my mother’s home I was the quiet one. My sisters were social and always seemed to have something happening around them, but I was usually somewhere off to the side with a book. Years later my sister’s husband joked that he didn’t remember me talking much back then because every time he saw me I was off somewhere reading. That was probably a fair description.
My aunt and uncle’s house felt different in ways that are hard to explain unless you’ve moved between spaces like that. The house itself was different from the apartment I came from, and the routines were different too. There were things there that weren’t part of our everyday life at home, and there were places I could go and things I could do that weren’t part of my normal routine with my mother. At the time none of that felt unusual. It was simply another place with its own expectations. Kids don’t spend much time analyzing those differences. You pay attention, you pick up on the atmosphere, and you settle into whatever rhythm the space requires.
Looking at it now, it’s easier to see how natural it became to read the room before deciding how to move in it. The adjustment was quiet and constant, just part of moving between different environments and learning how to fit into each one.
What I didn’t realize then is how easily that same instinct would follow me into other spaces later on.
Between Worlds Series
Part 1 – Between Worlds
Between Worlds
Part 2 – The Quiet Calibration
Between Worlds: The Quiet Calibration
Part 3 – Before the Edit
Between Worlds: Before the Edit
Part 4 – Different Rooms
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