What Family Means To Me

           Family has always been known as the group of people with whom you are related to, “a basic social unit consisting of parents and their children… whether dwelling together or not” (dictionary.com), but family does not have to be restricted to that.  Family can be people who you feel closest to, the people who you can rely on when times get tough, the people you put the most trust in.

            In a New York Times article called “The Changing American Family” written by Natalie Angier, the author focuses on family as in the exact definition. She explains that people are starting to marry those whom they would’ve never married if born in an earlier time.  However, marriage plays a role in how I interpret family, it is an amazing thing.  You find someone whom you connect with on a special level and then invite them to merge their family with yours and begin to create your own family.

            Angier proves that as a family comes together they don’t pay attention to any differences no matter how big or small.  “In increasing numbers, blacks marry whites, atheists marry Baptists, men marry men and women [marry] women, Democrats marry Republicans and start talk shows.” A member of one’s family can come from anywhere so long as the trust is there in the relationship a bond is created that almost cannot be broken.

            My father has been best friends with someone since senior year of high school, they went into the marine core together and haven’t separated since.  From the time I was born I have always known him as my uncle, I never even questioned whether he was my dad’s brother, or if we related at all.  All I knew was that he was family and him and his family would be there for me and my family, he was at our family reunion, and even was at the funeral services when my grandfather past away.

            That was a long time in the making, he has been a part of our lives for almost 25 years, for me becoming family does not have to take that long.  Freshman year of high school I met a friend who within a couple months became a brother to me.  I recruited him to join the wrestling team, only because he could fit in the weight class we were missing.  Over the few months we became friends through wrestling and we found out that we lived near each other.  Ever since our families have become close and they were a second family to me.

            Both my uncle and friend are not blood related to me yet they still are family, there is this sort of mental bond that forms throughout a time of knowing someone.  In a lot of cases blood relation doesn’t mean anything, my mother’s entire family lives in Washington state, she was born and raised there.  Her parents had a bad divorce when she was at an early age and my Papa Tony stepped in to help raise and support my mother’s family.  Ever since “Pa”, as we call him, has been a huge part of my family’s life.  My mother battles with conflicting emotions being all the way on the other side of the country having to hear about all the stuff that is happening.

            All three different scenarios have completely different backgrounds and topics about them, however, in each case I explain another part of my family.  Family as in the people I can count on when times get tough.

Dictionary.com
"The Changing American Family" (Angier, 2003) http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/26/health/families.html?pagewanted=all