Family
Our family has become more of the norm than the exception over the last few years... Your's, Mine, and Ours was almost taboo when mom and dad split when I was 6. The fact that it basically requires an organizational chart to explain how all the pieces fit together used to be an exhausting undertaking whenever I met someone new. "This one belongs to that one" "That one belongs to this one"... It's all just words and titles and meaningless mumbo-jumbo that people use to describe indirect relationships. In the end we're all family.
I grew up in what is considered a "broken home" by many standards. Mom left when I was 6, moved 4 blocks away and before I knew it I had another sister, two brothers with another one on the way and we were all going to live happily ever after in a new house. Regardless of what you might hear or read about how things used to be or how awful life was once, we really were happy together. Eight peas in a pod, seeing our other parents on opposite weekends with a little extra time sprinkled over the summer. In the end though, everyone was better off. Until you had to explain to someone how you have a sister who is in the same grade as you, who doesn't have the same last name as you, and isn't your "biological" sister... How in the hell is a second grader supposed to know what the term "biological' sister mean? So how do we explain it... we don't... there's no need...
Some people might use the term step-sister or step-brother. The word "step" according to the dictionary, even though no one has seen an actual dictionary in the last 15 years is "a rest for the foot in ascending or descending." It is not a word used to describe your relationship with your brother or sister. Unless of course the government is asking... then we use the word "step-". However in this family, we are just brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, the only steps that we have lead the second floor of our houses or down to the basement. In our house "step-" is a derogatory term, a term of negative connotation that puts down what is portrayed as a fabricated relationship by society because you might have different mothers and fathers.
I have three brothers, Jeff, Dan, and Paul.. But growing up, I had more, Sean and Dan, who you might think are surrogate uncles were brothers to me. I called their parents Mom and Dad, not because they had a biological relationship with me, but because they made me feel like part of their family.
Family is important. Family is the key to figuring out what life is really about. Whether you choose to have a family of your own is a choice you will need to make for yourself and for years I thought about how great it would be to have all the freedom that I longed for in a house of eight people where it was easy to feel lost or forgotten. My family, you all are the most important thing that I have ever done in my life. I have never and will never regret any choice that I made because they led me to you. My family is my life's greatest accomplishment.
I grew up in what is considered a "broken home" by many standards. Mom left when I was 6, moved 4 blocks away and before I knew it I had another sister, two brothers with another one on the way and we were all going to live happily ever after in a new house. Regardless of what you might hear or read about how things used to be or how awful life was once, we really were happy together. Eight peas in a pod, seeing our other parents on opposite weekends with a little extra time sprinkled over the summer. In the end though, everyone was better off. Until you had to explain to someone how you have a sister who is in the same grade as you, who doesn't have the same last name as you, and isn't your "biological" sister... How in the hell is a second grader supposed to know what the term "biological' sister mean? So how do we explain it... we don't... there's no need...
Some people might use the term step-sister or step-brother. The word "step" according to the dictionary, even though no one has seen an actual dictionary in the last 15 years is "a rest for the foot in ascending or descending." It is not a word used to describe your relationship with your brother or sister. Unless of course the government is asking... then we use the word "step-". However in this family, we are just brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, the only steps that we have lead the second floor of our houses or down to the basement. In our house "step-" is a derogatory term, a term of negative connotation that puts down what is portrayed as a fabricated relationship by society because you might have different mothers and fathers.
I have three brothers, Jeff, Dan, and Paul.. But growing up, I had more, Sean and Dan, who you might think are surrogate uncles were brothers to me. I called their parents Mom and Dad, not because they had a biological relationship with me, but because they made me feel like part of their family.
Family is important. Family is the key to figuring out what life is really about. Whether you choose to have a family of your own is a choice you will need to make for yourself and for years I thought about how great it would be to have all the freedom that I longed for in a house of eight people where it was easy to feel lost or forgotten. My family, you all are the most important thing that I have ever done in my life. I have never and will never regret any choice that I made because they led me to you. My family is my life's greatest accomplishment.
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