I would not be here if it wasn’t for my family. These words are what keep me going in life. I have a very strong family structure and growing up my father always taught me “no matter what you always have your family”. If I had to remember one value of my father it would be that family comes first. By being brought up this way made me become very family oriented, by making sure we all are together for holidays or ANY special occasion; not to mention my sisters are my best friends even though there is a ten year age distance. I am the youngest of 4 and being so I have often sided with nurture vs. nature because even though genetics due play some part, I was molded the way my family raised me. Knowing all this about me is where I connect all the dots. My family is alumni and I have been visiting the University of Minnesota since the age of 8 so I was exposed to all the glitz and glamour The U has to offer at an early age. All of my siblings went and graduated from this school and continue to live in the Twin Cities, I obviously planned to follow. Growing up I was socialized to like the gophers, before I even knew Goldy the Gopher’s name I had more gopher gear than the average freshman. Now here is where my story hits a curve. Children never do exactly as they are told and sometimes ignore parents’ advice. My father never expected all his kids to go to the U of M, it just sort of happened, so naturally when his baby went off to college he encouraged me to look into schools that were cheaper, smaller, and just plain less liberal. When choosing a school I did the pros and cons just like anything else and my pros weighed a hella lot more than my cons. The point that I am trying to make is that even though my father encouraged me to branch out from my family, I couldn’t. The core values I was taught led me to the U, to me it was being closer to my family by location, being able to experience what the rest of my family did, to me it was tradition. My father has never My family has been my rock, my saving grace and once again, I know I would not be the person I am today without them.
Reading your blog reminded me a lot about my family. I may not be from a family of just four siblings but overall I am very family oriented with my big family as well and my father has always said the same thing but it goes more like "you can pick and choose your friends but not your family because no matter what happens we (family) will always be there for you... not your friends". This sounds like a harsh reality check but if it's coming from someone you brought you to the world... they are telling you the truth. I know a lot of people who come from small families and they are not family oriented at all. They rarely come together unless it is just a holiday or birthday to celebrate with the family. They rather be with their friends than spend time mingling with their siblings and parents. When I run into these people they get pretty complicated and they usually talk harsh about their parents but in the end it's how we are all brought up to be and raised like you said. I love how you mentioned that. Great and very touching blog. :)
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about my family as this post tells me you do about yours. My best friends have always been family members and I know they'll always be around. I love how you told your story and it makes me happy to know there are still really close families in a world of such high divorce rates and so many other family problems.
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