Dear My Self Made Family -

The technical definition of family is “a group consisting of parents and children living together in a household”. That’s blood family, and as important as that is, it’s not the definition that pertains to every type of family.

As you grow up, you have to begin to create your own family. When in college, you have roommates you aren’t related to, you make friends who originated from hundreds of miles away, and your blood family is however far away. The need for love and affection is still just as needed as when you were a child living at home, so you find people to emulate the people that you are missing. This takes time, because family is special, so you need to find the right people in order to fill up your heart in just the right way. I’m lucky, and I’ve found that family already.

So thank you, because you few know who you are. You are the people I go to for anything, whether it be a good grade on a test, a bad day, a fight with a friend, a stomach ache, anything. You are the ones who give me a high five for the test, a hug for the bad day, advice for the fight, and the one who brings ginger ale and chicken noodle soup to my dorm from the dining hall and stay until I feel better.

You are the ones that I trust to keep me grounded and safe, you are the ones that I love through the fights and the good days. So I need to thank you, for a lot of things. Thank you for:

• The times that you have stayed up with me late into the night, making sure I’m okay, whether it’s a stomach ache or a bad heart break.
• The adventures we have gone on, whether they end with stupid laughs and jokes, amusement parks, long car rides, or anywhere else we have ended up.
• The times you stopped me from doing stupid things like skip homework or not study hard enough for a test.

I don’t know, maybe I’m rambling. But all I know is, without my self-made family, I would be going crazy in this big, crazy world. So thank you for keeping me sane, keeping me happy, and making me love you three more than anyone I have ever met.

With all my heart,

Me