My entire life I've been told that family always comes first, and that's something that I've lived by. Nothing was ever as important as my family. I've grown up hearing things like.. Your family is always going to be there for you. Your family will support you no matter what. Blood is thicker than water. Except.. Sometimes, those things aren't always true. That was hard to understand because in my world there was nothing better than knowing my family was always going to be there for me. Then I realized just how vague the word "family" really is.

Here's the truth...

Family is a word that in a traditional sense can be defined as "a group of people related to one another by blood or marriage", but that simple definition doesn't do the word justice and it doesn't seem entirely right. You try and teach your children that family is much more than just being related to someone, and although its defined as such, it's actually a little more complicated than that.

What I've learned in the past couple years is that the word "family" will not make someone love you and support you, and it certainly won't make them treat you right if they don't want to. If I were to define what the word "family" means to me I would say a family is a group of people who love each other and show each other the utmost amount of loyalty. In some cases you will find that your family isn't always the ones who share the same blood as you, and sometimes the people in your life that want the best for you, and would do absolutely anything for you aren't the ones you're related to.

I consider myself very lucky because I have an incredibly supportive and loving family who do whatever they can to help me when I need them, and this family includes not only my relatives, but a couple of my very close friends. This is because throughout the years they have proved to be just as supportive as the family I was born into. I have to remind myself that all families are different, and that's why its important to remember that the word family, is just a word, its not a binding contract. Its loyalty, love, and support that creates a family.

When I think about the group of people that I consider my family I think about one of my favorite childhood movies, "Lilo & Stitch." A popular quote in that movie is "Ohana means family, family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten." and its reoccurring theme proves that you can be a family without actually being related. I think its a great way to teach children about what it really means to be a family, and I find the same reoccurring theme within my own life.