New Homes, Same Family

When people ask me where I grew up, I can never give a solid answer. I've moved nine times in six different states and have never lived somewhere consistently for more than 3 years. Throughout all these moves, houses would change, schools would change, and even friends would change. However, family was always a consistency in my life. Not just my family physically, but also the emotional support and love that they provided. As a result of this, family has become a value that I hold essential to my life and my identity as a person.

Almost every big decision I can think of has involved my family. One such decision is if I wanted to accept my job offer. It'd be my first time moving away from home and truly being on my own in a long term setting. I relied on my values of family to make the decision easier. For one, the company I chose to work for held family values in extremely high regard, which really resonated with me. The location of my job is also somewhere that's highly rated for raising a family, which I plan on doing sometime in the future. The fact that this job coincides with my family values so well made the decision to accept that much easier.

Five years from now, I expect this value to evolve to encompass many other values. I want to learn to value not only my own family and idea of it but other people's idea of family as well. I imagine that I will continue to live my life based on the family value I've come to known growing up, but also begin to form my own idea of the family value. These new ideas will grow and evolve into what I will teach my own family so that they can grow to value family as well.

Submitted by Anonymous

Family