As I grow older, I’m thankful for my family more and more each day. When you’re young, and you’re apart of such a large close knit family, you really don’t notice it until you get older, and it is truly a blessing. The signs are all there, it just doesn’t hit you until you mature. When you’re a kid, everything feels forced, and it was. But for a reason - the results in the future.
Family functions were mandatory. Family vacations happened as often as possible. No matter how hard I threw a fit about a friend coming to a family function, it never worked because it was family time. Dinner was basically mandatory - no one ate in their bedrooms, or in the study, or in the basement doing homework, because that was family time, and the TV was turned off no matter what important show was on. Trying to get out of a family event for a friend or boyfriend was a complete and utter lost cause, no matter how many times or how hard you’d try. Going to bed without saying goodnight to each parent was not an option. Nor was it ever possible to ignore Mom’s over the top energy in the morning before school, and as much as you wanted not to smile, it was inevitable, even if it was just a small smirk. It all seems like such small things when you're young and unappreciative, but it’s all the little things that in the end create the best family you could ask for.
The long car rides for every single holiday (New Year's, Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Mother's Day, Father’s Day, the Fourth of July, birthdays, Eagles games, Grad parties, etc.). I dreaded them. All of my siblings did. My poor parents dealing with our moaning and groaning about the drive to Jersey or Richboro; it seemed like every other weekend or two. Looking back they were some of the best car rides of my life. An hour at a time I had some of my hardest laughs, best memories, obtained the best taste in music I could've gotten, and bonded with my family which in turn ended up as five best friends.
When you grow up with parents that dedicate their life ensuring you are close with your family, it is the most precious, rewarding thing you could ask for. Now, being a senior in college, I am still homesick about every two to three weeks. Now, I don’t go a day without talking to at least half of my family, and not a week without talking to each and every one of them. Now, I go home to party with my family instead of friends in school because quite frankly, I have a lot more fun. Now, I’d rather spend New Year's drinking with my cousins and aunts and uncles than my college friends. Now, I need them most, and they are the ones that keep me sane and smiling. Growing up being dragged from one family event to the next, and putting family first no matter what or who you wanted to replace it with at the time, was the best thing that could have ever happened to me, because I would not be who I am without my family. I would be absolutely nothing.
So yes, it seems like a struggle when you’re young, I’m sure at the time you think the parties, and the dates, and the time you could be sitting on social media seems a whole lot better than hanging out with your family, but as you grow older, I promise you will learn to appreciate it. They are honest, they want what’s best for you, they know you best, and they love you best. So thank you, to my family, and especially my parents, for giving me the biggest best support group I could ask for, and for about thirty best friends I’ll have till the end. You guys will forever mean the world to me and will always come first.
