When you go home for the holidays, it's nice to have a break from work, and visit your family. But it can also be
annoying, if you don't have any exciting news to share. All your siblings and cousins are reporting groundbreaking developments, like getting engaged and getting pregnant (and perhaps not in that order). Meanwhile, you're single, and it was just a regular year. You did you - working, watching TV, playing video games. It seemed pretty great, until you get interrogated by all your family members:
"Are you dating anyone?"
"When are you going to get married?"
"When am I getting grandkids?"
"Can you pass the mashed potatoes? Thanks. Also, WHY ARE YOU SUCH A LOSER?!"
It's especially hard to hide, with the tradition of Christmas cards and Christmas newsletters. On Christmas cards, they show an adorable photo of the whole family, showing off engagement rings,
pregnancies and newborn babies. On Christmas newsletters, they get even more elaborate, writing what is essentially a press release. Every family member has a paragraph dedicated to their amazing progress through life's journey. What are you supposed to do? Take a sad Christmas card photo of you and your three cats? Write a sad Christmas newsletter detailing your accomplishments in Super Mario Odyssey?
But this year, if you feel like 'that sibling' or 'that cousin,' you don't have to be ashamed. Somebody is standing up for all of us, and her name is Emily.
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After eating Thanksgiving dinner, the Seawright family gathered in the backyard to take a Christmas card photo. In previous years, they took pictures in exotic locations like New Orleans and South Africa. This year, they decided to do something simple, and hold up handmade signs marking their new statuses in life.
One sibling was expecting a new baby, so her sign said "Expecting." Another sibling got engaged, so her sign said "Engaged." Her parents were excited about both developments, so their sign said "Excited." But Emily Seawright, their single daughter, didn't have anything to report, so her sign simply said "Emily."
When Emily posted the photo on Twitter, she got over 300,000 likes and over 50,000 retweets. She also inspired a nations of Emilys to stand up, and claim their Emilyness. What's your relationship status? Emily. How are you feeling? Emily. We are all Emily.
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In an interview with ABC News, Emily's mom, Diane, said the family is "very happy" and Emily is
"happy being single."
“She just has a great sense of humor. I don’t want people to think we’re this cold family that threw our daughter on the side.
“My daughter came up with [the idea for the photo] and we thought it’d be funny. We have so much going on our lives as you can tell by our signs that we were just too busy to think of something else. Reluctantly, we all took part in the signs and here we are.”
Well, it's a good thing they did! This Christmas, when your relatives ask if you're dating anyone, or when you're going to get married, or when you're going to have kids, you can answer just by saying one word: Emily.
