The Declassified Adoptee

This post has been updated and republished. Read the new version here .

Our kids on daddy's fire engine. My kids' daddy is the man who lives with them, takes care of them, who loves their mommy, and who also gave them their DNA and ancestry.  All of these things, combined, for them , makes what is "father."  They will probably never hear someone say a bad word about him.  They will also never be asked an ignorant or nosy question or be told who their father can or cannot be whether based on nature or nurture.  They have a mother and an adoptive grandfather who are examples that not all daddies are involved the same way theirs is.  There are different connections, different relationships, and for some, no relationship at all.  They have four grandfathers, a biological one they won't hear me talk much about, a step-grandfather they'll get to see every so often, their grandfather through my adoption, and their grandfather through their daddy.  They have more great-grandfathers than they can count because several of their...

Against my better judgement, I registered to take six credits in a five week session.  I just passed the half-way mark yesterday and the two classes I'm taking, which I did not know were writing-intensive courses when I registered, are really starting to heat up work-wise.  I won't lie and say the literature class that I need to graduate with isn't a challenge for me.  Outside of Shakespeare and Beowulf, I did not have that great of an introduction to pre-modern British literature in high school.  I also have not written in MLA in six years.  When I started this, I knew this class was going to be a challenge and I had a choice: I could hang on for the ride and just try to get through it or really throw myself into it and work hard.  I chose the latter, surprising myself, because I really love the class.  So, how did my ancestors help me connect with the text?