Family is...

     I live in a house with my mom, dad, and brother. I have grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins that I am related to by blood. I also have grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins that I am not related to by blood. These are all my "patent" family if you will. No one and nothing can make them not be my family because we are related. But they aren't the only people that make up my family. I'm not sure what the technical definition of family is because honestly, I don't really care. My family is made up of the people that i can be myself around, I feel close to, and those people that know me so well that sometimes they know me better than I know myself. There are times where I have antipathy towards them, and they have it twords me, but we always end up getting along in the end, and we even tend to be closer after moments of militating each other. Like all of these blog topics, family is different for everyone which, I'm guessing is why these are the topics Mr. Neumann wants us to write about. For some, the people they live with are not family to them. I am lucky to have a good family that supports each other and for the most part gets along really well. However, I know that some families are not like that, which is why I would say that family is not limited to the people who you share a home and common blood line with. Now, I will tell an applicable story. I work with elementary school kids every Wednesday after school. I help my mom teach a dance and fitness class called Cardio Kool Kids. There are two classes, one of primarily kindergarten through 3rd graders and the other of primarily 3rd and 4th graders. In the class of 3rd and 4th graders, everyone has taken Cardio Kool Kids for at least 2 years. They all know each other really well, so that class has a family like atmosphere to it. Each person in there is an asset to the group, but not everyone gets along. Some are exuberant, funny, stentorian people. Some are very sedated. Others always seem implacable. One day, I was talking with one of the implacable 3rd grade girls. I wanted to understand why she was still singing up for the class if she really didn't like it. As we were talking, I realized her attitude in the class actually had nothing to do with the class. She is constantly besetted at school by a group of girls (one who is also in our class). She also had lots of trouble at home. She has way more prowess than I do because I don't think I could handle what she's going through. The people who are supposed to support her and help her actually make her life harder. She didn't tell me all of this looking for compassion or trying to stipulate getting out of participating in class that day, she told me because she needed someone to be there for her. She also didn't make the conversation into some type of duress. The conversation was difficult to imbibe, but at the end of it I told her that I would make sure no one bullied her in the 3 hours that I was at Tritt during the week. However, as an ultimatum, she had to make sure she didn't let them push her around the rest of the week and she had to have decorum towards them. This past Wednesday was our last class at Tritt for this year. During the 8 weeks after that conversation, the girl and I have become very close. Her innocuous, yet negative comments stopped, and I think she realized that she isn't infinitesimal. See, in those eight weeks, I got to know her better than I know some of my cousins and she told me things she hasn't been able to tell her dad. She is now like a part of our family. My definition of family isn't a facsimile of a family tree. It's the people who care about you and who you care about. Family is... different for everyone. Family is... the most important group a person will ever be a part of.

Song: We are Family by: Sister Sledge