We were all lucky enough to feel the love of our friendship group in secondary school. The love we felt when we would first see them at the beginning of the day, during our lunch time and most importantly outside of school when we were free and able to pursue any activities we wanted was indescribable.
Just like our blood family, this family of friends being referred to, is what J.K Rowling would call a, "Life jacket in the stormy sea of life.” During tough times, the fact that we never left our friends nor our families, only strengthened our relations. As Mitch Albom outlines, "Sticking with your family is what makes it a family" and as a family we then continue to provide support to one another, show encouragement and love.
What we fail to sometimes acknowledge about our families is that as well as providing us with support, encouragement and love, they also gave us the opportunity to learn how to communicate, to manage our emotions, to interact as siblings/ friends and experience the consequences of both parties actions. As a result of this, we ultimately became the people we are today. Although we decided what experiences we have, our family created the circumstances in which we made these decisions and became who we are today.
For our blood/ social families to be responsible for a large majority of our lives, how can we show we value them? How may we avoid taking them for granted?
