I like hanging out with my family. I don't think many would say that this is an unpopular opinion, it seems that the majority of people at least put up with very family for a limited amount of time.

As a kid, my parents made sure that "family fun time" was an integral part of our childhoods. Whether it were family vacations to Walt Disney World, obnoxiously loud dinners at whatever establishment we all could begrudgingly agree on, or just an overly aggressive night of Scattegories, the greater portion of our weekday nights and weekends were spent being around each other.

This was all fine, until my teenage angst ridden years were upon me. At a time were I had more books than friends, I was willing to do whatever it took in order to fit in. However, fitting in came at a price. It required abandoning the ideals that my parents had spent countless hours instilling in me: family came first. If you wanted to be popular, you had to be ready at any moments notice to drop everything in order to meet your new "friends" at Sonic or at so-and-so's house because if you dared choose the evening of Mario Kart you promised your little brother, then you could kiss your social life goodbye. I spent junior high and most of my high school career fighting with my parents, insisting that I would literally die if I didn't go out both nights of every weekend. I wasn't the role model I should have been for my younger siblings, believing that their desire to sit at home with me to watch the Middle was the epitome of lame. I regret the years wasted treating my family as second class citizens the most.

This past spring break we took another family trip to Sanibel Island, Florida. Nothing spectacular occurred on this vacation, just another couple of days spent at the beach laughing at anything and everything, but after my plane landed in my school town on a cloudy Wednesday morning, all I could do was cry. I wanted nothing more than to jump on the next flight back to Florida, simply to be with my family just a few days longer. They're the only people in this world I can truly be myself with, and I wouldn't trade the moments I have with them for anything in the world.

It's summer now, and I have somehow found a way to fill every single second of every day with either a job, or school, or volunteering. I know that at the first chance of a day off, most college kids would run to the nearest lake, pool or bar to see old high school friends, but not me. You can find me in my basement, binge watching Pretty Little Liars and old seasons of Survivor with the funniest, most loyal, and most loving people in the entire world: my family.