Friends are great right? Absolutely! Everyone loves their friends and why shouldn't they? I mean friends stick with you through thick and thin, through the good times and bad! Friends pick you up when you're down and are always around when you need them. It's because of friends like these that some people call a group of friends “the family you choose”. But what about your real family, the one that you didn't choose? Are they just as worthy of all this praise and admiration? Well that got me thinking.

My immediate family is comprised of myself, my older brother, my mother, and father. Together we've been living together in the same house for almost 20 years. The years we've spent together have had their ups and downs, as has everyone's past 20 years. But no matter how bumpy the past two decades have been one thing has always remained constant: my family's constant love for me. Constant event when I didn't see it.

You see, I was a bit of a brat growing up. I spent years of my life thinking just about myself. If things didn't go my way I complained, if I didn't get what I want I whined, if my family tried to teach me something I ignored it. Let me tell you now, I was a fool.

I didn't choose my family, no one does. My family didn't choose me, but my family chose to love me. And I've learned to choose to love them. My family isn't perfect, but they are mine and I've been abundantly blessed with them. Each one of them has impacted my life in a way that I can never repay and I hold each of them so incredibly dear.

So why tell you this? And why bring up friends? Well it's because I spent years not knowing what to do with the family I never chose. Some of those years I spent ignoring them or trying to avoid them and I regret every second. Now I'm so incredibly thankful for them and the love I now feel for them. I hope that you'll read this at a time where you have a chance to avoid my mistakes. I hope you'll read this and remember what a gift your family can be. I hope you'll read this and you'll learn to love the family you never chose.