family....

family - its the key word in my life. i am a handicap guy paralysed waist below. but here i am today 24 yr old guy responding to your discussion. and its all because of my family. and by my family i dont only mean my immediate family. when i say family i include everyone in it my blood relations, my friends and even some unknown strangers who in their small unknowing way have helped me to grow up a man i am today. each of them holds great importance in my life. and i can say if i am what i am today its 100% because of my FAMILY. i cherish them and owe them a lot.

I have two different definitions for the word "family". One of them is important to me, the other is not. The first definition is of course your blood relatives. Most of the relatives I grew up around abused me horribly. So I don't have much attachment to them now as an adult, except my father who became a much better person later on in his life and became someone I am now proud of and care about (though still not a real father figure because he wasn't one when I was a child.) The second definition is the people who actually love you and support you. Sometimes these people might happen to be blood relatives, but in my experience more often they have not been. I have had friends who showed me more kindness in the first few days our friendship than some of my blood relatives did during my entire childhood. So that is the family that matters to me, the one you build yourself, whether it consists of friends, spouses, children, or whatever.

My FAMILY is my life. They can be your immediate, blood related, your friends and/or a complete stranger. They are the main characters in the chapter of your life who helped you become who you are. I would always priotize my immediate family first. Even if you go away for the longest time, you will still end up with them until the rest of your life. Being with your family doesn't only mean the physical presence but also being in your thoughts. My FAMILY is my strength and my teachers in life. If not for them, I wouldn't be able to appreciate the beauty of the world, nor understand and respect the difference that we may have.