Family

In this blog post, I will not use any entries from dictionaries or encyclopedias. These are meanings I had to discover for myself through the course of this academic year. Family pictures to follow.

What is a family? To me, a family is a group of people (whether biologicially related or not) that share a common respect for one another and always have each other's best interests at heart. Family members look out for each other. The welcome does not end. Arms are always open. A family solves problems and shares joys as a group

Who is family? This term can hold many meanings. Firstly, the most familiar definition is that of Mom, Dad, siblings, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. Pets are usually included too. All my life, I've also included close friends (or true friends if you will) in this defintion, friends I found I could go to. Family is important in life, and friends are probably the most essential. A few days ago, one of my blogposts is the lyrics of Christian band Mercy Me's song "Homesick." One of the lyrics "If home's where my heart is" speaks directly to me. I am 5,000 miles away from my biological family and close circle of friends that I grew up with. And I've realised that the word home does not refer to a physical place. It does not refer to the USA or Wales or wherever one was raised. Home refers to your family. If your family holds your heart, then that is where your home is, no matter the geographical destination. Since the location doesn't matter, one can have family all over the world, and this year, I have gained a few British family members, as well as American and Greek. Not everybody thinks of their friends in this way. Some consider "family" too close a term for friends, but I don't. I see no difference. If one loves her friends just as strongly as she loves her family, then her friends are her family. Not blood related, but joined at the heart and soul.

And when I refer to friends as family, they are not "family" or "extended family". They ARE family

So technically, I could be in the USA for a few months and homesick for my family in the UK.

The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~Erma Bombeck

To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there. ~Barbara Bush

The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.
- Albert Schweitzer

Greater love has no man than this, than he that lay down his life for his friends. - John 15:13