14- Zack R- Be like Dom

Family is usually described as people who share the same DNA as you or are related through marriage. But I like to think of Family as the people closest to me. The ones I can call and express my thoughts to. Not everyone has a perfect relationship with people usually deemed “family”. Just because we were born related to them doesn’t mean they have to be family. A lot of people call their closest friends their family, or a second family. But I’ve never seen the reason for separating them. As I’ve grown up my entire family has been made up of aunts and uncles and cousins not related by any sort of blood or marriage, but the friends my parents have made over the years that have stayed with them. For over 30 years they’ve had the same group of friends that I’ve never seen as anything other than my own family. Sure we might be closer to some than others, and most of the group is made up of direct relatives, but they’ve been able to mix friends and “family” together to make them one whole. I have a lot of goals for my life, cars to buy, jobs to have, places to see. But the one that I want to reach the most is keeping my friends close enough to consider them family. I want to be able to keep the same people close to me and develop those relationships to the point where I’ll know them as nothing less than family. I think the importance of close friendships is often overlooked and separated from family as short term fun versus long term relatives. But aside from the people in our own homes we often spend more time with friends than relatives, so why not consider them the same. 302