2006
My chosen family.
Personally I believe that family is not just the people who are related to you by blood but are who you chose to be your family.
I have a very strained relationship with my family and that is at the best of times. My father preferred to show his ‘love’ through his fists and some of my family take that like it is his right but I couldn’t and wouldn’t act like that is the norm. My mother still contacts me every now and again, on some level I love her because she is my mother and there will always be a bond but on another level I despise her for taking what my father gave out in the name of love. She doesn’t have the strength to stand up against him for her sake or ours.
I remember one Christmas in particular, the family were all together laughing and joking around like millions of other families on Christmas day, I sat and watched them interacting and thought to myself how different we were, if I faded out of their lives they would barely notice.
I am a very reserved person, I can’t admit my feelings openly and find it very hard to show someone I care through hugs or kisses as that was a foreign concept growing up. When I was introduced to my girlfriends family I met this entity that freaked me out. Her mother is perhaps the most caring person I have ever met, she rains hugs and kisses down on her children and accepts people for who they are. She welcomed me into the family, giving me a key to her house and gave me a hug. I felt like a rabbit caught in the headlights, immediately tensing up because I was caught off guard.
Time has passed and when I have some time off from music I stay with my girlfriends family. They tease me at every opportunity about how I can’t do ‘hugs’, I am getting better, I can actually hug back now 
..but you see, when an almost stranger is willing to let you into their life, home and family when your own blood relatives shut you out at every given chance it makes you realize that family is not just a birth right but also a chosen one. They chose to let me into their family and I chose to accept.
Name: Sky
Age: 14
Location: Massachusetts
Personal Blog: Creative Muse
Quote: “Mr. Parker, in my job, you learn that nothing is certain. Nothing. Nothing that seems very good, and nothing that seems very bad. Nothing is certain. Nothing.” — Susan Lewis, ER, 24 Hours
