The Value of Family

Today, due to some of the events in my life that have taken this place this week, I really feel the need to talk about family and how important it is to not take your family for granted. The thing is, growing up in a small suburb on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, I never would have thought that I would meet teenagers struggling through such difficult times, most commonly issues within their families. I have spent so much time thinking about how lucky I truly am that I have grown up in such a warm and loving home. However, I can not say that for most of my friends. I have spent a lot of time pondering why I have had such luck. Why did my best friend need to struggle under the weight of her family's issues when I had such an amazing and loving family that supported me through my most difficult friends. It wasn't until recently that I realized that I could change anything that my friends were experiencing. No good deed would ever fix the troubles that I have seen a lot of people face. However, through a lot of soul-searching I realized that there were only two things that I could really do, I can support my friends to help them through their hard times and not ever take what I have for granted because the truth is, not everyone has what I have, and more likely than not, not everyone has what you have either.

The truth is, no one lives a perfect life. No one has the perfect family. We all have obstacles that we have to overcome. For instance, my mother has been sick with a neurological disease since before I was born. I have watched all of her triumphs and failures and after a while it becomes truly difficult to watch your parent's physical state decline so rapidly. I watch her struggle through many everyday things, but the amazing part is, she has never once lost hope. She really is the most inspiring woman I have ever met and I love her more than any words could actually describe. With such an aggressive disease wreaking havoc on her neurological system, she has quite a lot of trouble completely seemingly menial tasks. So from a very young age, I helped around the house and did some things that many kids my age would never even think of doing. However, I never examined the differences and this is the key. In fact, I think I began to value my family more than many of my peers did because I realized that we needed to support each other to get through the hard times. And so I can tell you all: everyone goes through dark periods in their lives. Life is hard and often times cruel, but we are all given a really amazing gift in this life and that gift is family and they should never be taken for granted.