Enjoy Family

Enjoy Family

                Family is one of the most important things we have in our lives. We may not know this when we are younger because most of us haven’t felt loss at an early age. We haven’t encountered the impending meetings with death that we all have to face sooner or later. I considered myself very close with my family, I was always in a school with my cousins, always at my hippy uncles house and visiting my grandma and grandpa every weekend and I’m not saying I took for granted but I didn’t know what I had until it was gone. A family is as tight knit as you make it; you have to contribute to the overall feeling of togetherness and strength so you have the strong foundation when you need it the most. Well when I was 12 years young I went through one of the toughest and most character building times of my life. I lost my great grandma that summer, my father the year after and also my grandparents. This shook my family to the core and I feel we have never fully recovered. I never encountered death and with such a blow and I didn’t know how to handle it. I couldn’t comprehend the idea of losing a loved one let alone most of my family and what was left of my family slowly drifted apart. Holiday family dinners faded away, visiting each other as much as we did dwindled and it soon became just my mother and I. I also moved schools which also had me struggling for air but I had to become strong for my family and mother’s sake. My mother and I started a dog walking business because my father provided for my family, I took control of advertising and I worked seven days a week to make sure we had a roof over our heads. But I never truly understood what happened until I was eighteen, that life can sneak up on you and shake your foundation and you must always get up every time you fall down. Death is a part of life and we have to love the ones who we hold to dear to us as much as we can for as long as we can because you never know what life might bring next. My small family has recently had growth in the right direction and everyone has come to the fact that all we have is each other. Thanksgiving is coming up and I am thankful for everything I have and I look forward to enjoying my family and being thankful we are all together.