We are finally over Thanksgiving, the biggest day for family meals and reunions all year long. While everyone seems to love the meal part, everyone always seems to get caught up on the family part. If you look at Twitter or Instagram around the holidays, your feed will be clogged with memes of "Thanksgiving clapbacks" of responses to the snappy comments of relatives. However, while these memes are hilarious, these memes become far too real for people that are ostracized by their family every year.
The Thanksgiving Clapback memes make fun of the rude, mundane comments we all hate to hear from our distant relatives. Treading over passive-aggressive statements about our relationships, education, jobs, and so much more.
While these are hilarious, they touch on a much more real and depressing issue. Every year, while we are annoyed by the rude comments of our relatives, so many people are constantly being shunned away from their families because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, political beliefs, religious beliefs, and so many other superficial issues.
Family is supposed to be the group around you that loves you and accepts you unconditionally. Because of that, your family doesn't simply have to be the relatives you are born into. In fact, the opposite is often true. While some relatives are absolutely wonderful and give unconditional love, far too many will focus on benign details and cling to views that make them willing to reject their so-called "family." This is not what a family should be at all. A family would never reject you for personal reasons. Family never stops loving, no matter the circumstance, trials, or personal beliefs.
Because of this, it is important to find your family, not just take the one you are born into. Find the people that will love you no matter. Find the people that will always be there to support you. Find those people that will accept you for who you are. Most importantly, love those people, accept those people, and support those people equally. Finding friends is one thing, but finding your family is the most important thing for your emotional health.
