A Sense of Family

Family, in the traditional sense, are the people that you are related to when you are born into this world. People say you can't pick your family, but honestly, I can't agree with this. I pick who I consider my family, and cast out the rest if they are toxic in my life. Family to me isn't just about being related. Family is something so much more. I have friends that I consider more of my family than some of the people I am related to.

Some people justify the horrible actions of relatives by saying they are family, and that family sticks together, no matter what. I just cannot justify keeping someone in my life that treats me or my love ones so terribly that they cause nothing but problems. Just because someone is related to me does not mean that I have to have that person involved in my life. The perfect example is my "mother". She is the one who donated the egg and womb in the process of creating me. But, just because she slept with my dad and created me, is not justification for her being totally being bat shit crazy towards me or anyone else that I care about and me still keeping her around.

 Now my mom on the hand, is a completely different person. This is the woman who took me in as her own and she raised me. She was the one there when I was sick, when I was bad and good, when I needed advice, and even after she left my Dad. At this point she is "technically" my ex-step-mother. But titles really don't matter to me. She is my Mom. She is my family. That thing that birthed me, is not.

Family means so much more to me. Family is there for you. Family loves you, even when you screw up. They don't turn their backs on you. They want the best for you, and actually act like it. You don't always have complete harmony in family, but constant backstabbing, lying, hating, and mistreatment is just not something that true family does. Almost all of my relatives are considered family. My closest friends are my family. I have extra "aunts", "sisters", and "brothers" that are really good friends who made it into my family.

Family is something special. They mean the most to you. No matter their story, or where they come from, they mean the most to you. There is a love that you feel for these people that cannot be broken. A bond that keeps you connected. That bond is something special, and the special things are the most treasured.

Money comes and goes. People enter and leave our lives. Material items loose value and break. The treasure of your true family never fades.

Be wonderful. Be Beautiful. Be you.

~Ashlie