My life; family edition.

Family is one of the most important things to me. I grew up in a huge family; I have 20 cousins who are 2 feet from my reach, 5 whom are about an hour drive, a sister, a brother in law, my parents, grandparents, nephew and all of my Aunts and Uncles. A lot of people aren't close with their cousins because they are usually extended family who live in other areas; my cousins are my neighbors and my best friends. Every single one of them is basically a brother or sister to me and I love them all with all of my heart. We all spend every single holiday together, every birthday together, every graduation together and basically every day together.

If you read my first blog entry, you will know what I am about to talk about in this section of my blog. When my moms situation erupted, I felt like I had no one with me, like I was going to be alone. But this is why my cousins feel like my brothers and sisters; every single one of them were there with me for the whole 4 years of struggling. Some of them would come over and just come into my room and sit there with me, talk with me, and help me through the most difficult time of my life. Others invited me to go anywhere they went; the mall, the race track, to get lunch, or even just to go to Shoprite to get me out of my drought. I wouldn't be where I am without my cousins because they honestly helped me through those 4 years and continue to support me through anything in my life.

Now, I will admit, our family as fights just like the rest of them. The thing that makes our family fights more difficult is the fact that we all live so close together so interaction is unavoidable. But, living close together is also a good thing. Though we have these fights, we always find a way to work it out. I remember once, our family had a fight over who was going to hold Easter celebration (stupid, I know). Any whom, there was a huge argument and Easter was in a week, we had to figure something out. All of the aunts came together and sat around a table and just talked. They talked about the issues, why the fight started and how to resolve it. I was astonished at how they all sat around the glass table and talked and ended up resolving the issue, that is something I admire about this family.

My extended family isn't extended, they are one of the biggest parts of my life. They support me, protect me, make me smile, make me laugh, and they helped make me into, well, me. I love my family and you can bet that even when I go away to college, they will all be right by my side.