Big or Small: The Importance of Family to Me

The way I see a family may be different to other people. I see a family as the people you can always call home, wherever you may be in the world. These people don't necessarily need to be blood-related to you. They can be your friends, a trusted colleague and for some people, a school teacher. These are the people who make you feel like you belong to something, the people who make you proud. I'm going to open up and share a story which recently happened to me.

My family is small, we are close, and we know what we are all up to. For the most part! There are no awkward, "What are you doing with yourself now? I haven’t seen you in years," questions from a long-lost uncle. There is genuine love and care, and although some members may live far away, they are still involved in everything.

I recently had the opportunity to observe and feel a family much different to mine, however, the love and care were still there and just as strong.

I had travelled to Spain with my girlfriend to catch up with her family and celebrate her mother’s 50th birthday with a semi-surprise party.

Being English, I do not have control of the Spanish language nor do I pretend to, for embarrassment's sake. I do however, have the advantage of being the only person in the room who can observe other people as I don’t fully understand the surrounding conversations.

When I was in Spain I felt like, as I didn’t know what the other person was thinking nor had the ability to judge me, I could really tell who they were and what they were about. Their personality may be boisterous (which was most of the time) and some sit in the corner and smile my way, just to see if I’m ok.

My immediate family is comprised of around ten people. All grown up and living their own lives. At the party were 44 people. All of different ages and stages of their lives. And that’s with some people missing. Over four times the size of my family, sounding four times as loud!

The party was a combination of both my girlfriend's father and mother’s family, sprinkled with a few of their friends. I had met them all and knew who they were and I was holding my own with my knowledge of the Spanish language.

Everybody got on with each other; they would just talk about general life, what each of them is currently getting up to and making plans for the future. One thing I know for absolute certain is that I felt like I was part of the family, I was one of them. Even though we don’t speak the same language, they would engage with me and talk, find out who I was. I could feel that they were generally interested in whom I was, and that to me proved to be very important. It made me feel very comfortable and allowed me to be myself.

The most important thing to most people is their family and how proud they are of their brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, cousins, and how they make each other feel. Family inspires people to do things they might not have thought possible, it gives people the direction needed to accomplish dreams. It gives them the strength to carry on, everyday.

I had the honour and privilege of meeting my girlfriend’s family. Out of all of the families throughout the world, I genuinely feel like this is one that has insatiable love flowing throughout. It doesn’t matter how big or small your family is if there is love, then nothing else matters.

Keep your family close and tell them how much you love them!