Honestly, I never thought that my family would mean so much to me as people say they would. Of course growing up, you get those seriously annoying and embarrassing moments between your parents, the fighting and name-calling between your siblings or relatives, and of course the least memorable aspect...saying goodbye to them when they pass away.

When I was in high school, my English class had to do a poem/speech and then talk about it to the class in one giant circle...I kid you not. And someone in the group had a really powerful poem about family and in it she said, "Family end in I Love You."

Since then, I've always kept that thought that family is forever and family always ends with love. Recently, I had to go to a funeral after losing a close family member of mine. It obviously wasn't easy nor was it something that I would wish upon anyone, but at the end, when I saw how many people had come out for this amazing woman, I realized that we have a bigger family than we knew.

Family doesn't have to be blood related, nor does it even have to be within your "family" it can be a small group of friends you've known forever who know more about you than you believe, to even a person that was intended to become family, that you'll always see as family no matter what. Family can be the problem and solution to your life. They butt in when you don't want them to, but sometimes it can be for the right reasons, and even though your pride doesn't want to admit it, you know you'll be grateful in the end.

Whether we like to admit it or not, our family is pretty bad-ass and are always there for each other, regardless of our past, or issues. I understand that some people don't always have the fortune of having a family close to them, or even one at all, but as someone who gets embarrassed by my family more times than I can count, I know I can always rely on them when I need it.

"You can't pick your family" but you can at least be weird together.