Family Isn't Always Blood

"They're like a sister to me!"

We live in a world where the term "family" is getting harder and harder to explain. For some, their family includes their grandparents, aunts, and uncles, cousins -- even the second cousins they only see at family reunions. For others, their family dynamic relies on their friend group due to their disconnection to their family after so long. The family does not always have to be your blood to be considered family; they just have to care.

Family Troubles

One of the biggest issues facing a family today is the possibility of divorce. In the United States, the common percentage you'll hear is that "50% of married couples will get divorced." It's a scary thought to instill in your child. Every child wants to feel the love of a parent, and it's better if there are two taking care of the child. However, that is not always the case for some kids.

There are some kids that will never feel the total love of two parents. Growing up, I was fortunate enough to have both of my parents present in my life. As time went on, though, my father became more and more disconnected from the rest of us. My parents separate and my father moved out of our house. He developed on his own while I was in my later years in high school. He promised he would visit frequently, but the trips to our house lessened month after month, year after year, until suddenly it's a plea from us to even get him over to see us.

With my father, it's now as though my siblings and I have lived solely with a single mother for the past few years without a true relationship with our paternal parent. We have all but severed ties with him, especially when his true intentions were revealed that he wanted to find new love and start a whole new family. When we learned of a half-sibling, ties were cut. I have heard my siblings say: "What dad? I have a sperm-donor."

Our parents try to show their love, but it is not always worth the fight. Unconditional love is supposed to be just that: never ending and never at competition with anything else.

Friend Families

When you develop closely with a friend group, it can be easy to consider them a family away from family. When you go off to college, you're expected to make some of the closest friends in your life. You go through the memories of helping each other through those late night parties that disrupt your attendance at your 8 AM class the next morning; you laugh through the breakups over loud music while you dance away the pain. Your lifelong friends are going to mean more to you than any other friendship you have gone through, and it's for a reason.

Our families are not always by blood. If soulmates were to be proven true, I would even argue that your significant other is possibly not your soulmate, but rather your absolute best friend can be. Family, by definition, says that it's a group consisting of parents and children living in the same household; however, your family can extend far deeper than that.

Think about this: as you grow older, you become more distant from your family. Perhaps you go to a college states away or you get a job in your field in another state. There's no family around in the area to turn to, though your mom is just a phone call away. The only relationships you develop are with a partner or with your friends at that point. You create your own inner circle, a group of individuals you can turn to at any point when you need it. You begin to develop an unconditional love for these people as you feel as though you would do literally anything for them.

A family is an important part in anybody's life, but sometimes our family is who we least expect it to be.