Family Ties

So every family has its issues. It ranges from mild to severe. Its completely normal though. What family doesn’t have issues? Not even families on TV get along all the time! Its natural for us to fight and argue. Yes, even some families separate, but sometimes its for the better. That saddest part is when parents who still love each other split because its whats best for the children. Yes, being in love is a wonderful thing, but when you become a parent, you give up what matters most to you to give this child, this life that you helped create, a better life. I’ve had some things happen recently that haven’t been the most normal family occurrences. My family is more than a little dysfunctional, so much so that lets just say that the local officers know us pretty well. I try not to get my hopes up around the holiday season. Something bad happens almost every year. Nothing red and blue flashing lights kind of bad, but arguments and fighting and not getting along kind of bad. Which really is a downer when its Christmas. Anyways, this year was actually looking good. We’ve gotten all of our holiday shopping done, everyone is pitching in around the house to get ready for family coming over for dinner. Things were great. Until the bomb dropped. It was a night filled with those red and blue lights. 5 of them actually. Not fun. To glaze over what happened, arguments, fighting and even a baseball bat thrown in for good measure. No one killed, so don’t worry there. Just badly hurt, nothing a trip to the hospital and medical staples couldn’t fix. Basically. this is turning out to be one of the best Christmases ever. No offense to the party now behind bars. But my family has always gotten along better without said person. Things run smoother, there isn’t any drama besides the basics that ever family deals with. Now the folks are splitting. Don’t get me wrong, they love each other, so so much. But honestly, Its whats best. I’ve known this for over seven years and I’m amazed that its taken this long for them to realize it. Being an adult now, I wonder how my life could have been if they had realized this sooner. Would I have turned out differently? Even if I had, I like the person I am today. I have a great group of friends and I’ve turned into the person I wanted to be. Sure, I can still point out things I want to work on and fix, but overall, I’m happy where I am and where I see myself going. So sure, life could have been different if I had lived in a single parent home sooner, but would I be proud of who I grew up to be? I’m a strong person now, I’ve had to grow up faster due to whats happened in my family, but its made be strong. Its made me into the person I talked about in my first post, the kind of person people come to for advice.

So remember this holiday season, that no matter what… things happen for a reason. We may not know the reason right now, but when you are proud of the person you turned out to be, you’ll understand that the way things happened and the time at which they happened, all lead to you becoming this amazing person that you are proud to be.

Remember that all families have their problems, some worse than others but that is family. Sometimes we’re close and sometimes we aren’t, its just the way things are. Surround yourself with people that you love, whether its friends or family or cats or dogs or anything you can think of. That is what is most important during the holidays. 

Happy Christmas.