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Relationships

What Does Family Mean To You?

The discussion of true friendship and unconditional love.

Samantha Langseth

Mar 05, 2018

University of Wisconsin Branch Schools

323

Pexels

The idea of family is a very normalized idea that I’m sure not many take the time to sit and think about. It's the people you have lived with day in and day out for the first 18 years of your life. These are the people who have seen you through all of your phases some phases better than others. The people you will always be genetically tied to.

This idea of a family isn’t the same for everyone. There are many different family dynamics. When I came to college my friends became my family to fill the void I was missing.

It isn’t hard to adopt that feeling towards others when you are living with them and seeing them in their most vulnerable state. Family is a bond that can simply be described through unconditional love. It's the people you choose to associate with and share the most personal part of yourself with.

Through this idea, the test of true friendship has been questioned. Over time I have learned that you are going to be let down and sometimes things just won’t go your way. Life can be a journey, but the exciting thing is everyone has their own journey to experience.

Being away from my family has given me the opportunity to experience new adventures and meet people that have taught me many life lessons. It is your experiences that help you become the person you are meant to be. Family helps center you when you get lost in the adventure. They can be the helping hand that you may have trouble admitting you need.

Being away from my family has really made me appreciate them. It has shown me how fortunate I am to have parents that want to talk on the phone every day and siblings that look forward to me coming home. It's incredible to see where life can take you in just three years.

Some things haven’t been so great, but from that great things have come about. Distance really does make the heart grow fonder. The people that care the most about you will always prevail. These are the people that I know will never let me down and will always be there to pick me up when I fall.

A family are the people that you can laugh endlessly with or can drive you absolutely insane. At the end of the day, they are all you have. When all of the materialistic items in our life disappear your family is the people that would still be there.

Wheather it's my best friend calling me in the middle of the night because life is just a little too hard or calling my brother to see how golf is going. These relationships define your happiness, not money or social status. It's simply the people that would be there for you if everything else disappeared. At the end of the day who would be there for you?

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.

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What Does Family Mean To You?

The discussion of true friendship and unconditional love.

Subscribe to our Newsletter

No one best represents the struggle like our favorite 90s squad.

1. When course schedules are released and you have a conflict between two required classes.

2. When there is only one section of a popular course.

3. Receiving the 18,000 emails reminding you to register ASAP.

4. When you need to see an advisor, but they are too busy/unresponsive.

5. Trying not to dress like a bum for your appointments with your advisors/department heads.

6. When you have a perfectly planned out schedule, and one class ruins it.

7. Carefully moving things around to accommodate a different class/section.

8. Waking up at 6:00 a.m. for your enrollment time.

9. Concocting a new schedule at your enrollment time after your original plan gets changed.

10. Getting into a class and filling the last available seat.

11. When all of your classes finally go through.

12. Realizing that you forgot a class that was a pre-requisite for everything else.

When your capability of "adulting" is put to the test

Nobody deserves to be living in poverty.

"Nobody living in one of the most influential nations in the world should be worried about making ends meet."

What is the current minimum wage at the federal level?

What are the benefits of raising the minimum wage?

What are the states that have set a $15/hour minimum wage?

Told through Parks & Recreation GIFs

Because who understands your bitterness better than April?

1. When you have to provide an "interesting fact" for your first day ice-breaker.

2. When your professor is babbling on and on in his lecture.

3. When you edit your friend's paper and they get an A.

4. When it's 2 AM and you remember you have a test tomorrow.

5. When you finish taking the test and you're pretty sure you failed...

6. ...but then you get the test back and somehow passed.

7. When you've been up for 12 hours straight writing a paper.

8. And then you manage to stay awake in class the next day.

9. When you have to butter up your professor for an extra credit opportunity.

10. When you're assigned a group project.

11. And your group-mates are trying to chat about life instead of the assignment.

12. When it's your last class of the day and you're about to go home.

13. But then you remember rent is due tonight and the anger comes back.

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