What is a "family"?

I have several different versions of what a family is and what it can be. I consider those I am blood related to my family, automatically. They belong to me and I them in some way. Yet they are only a distant version of the word, for I know my extended family very little except for a few. When I think of family I think of my immediate family instinctively. I picture my mother and father, sisters and my brother. They are my family, they have made me into who I am for the most part. I then think of a few individuals that I have "adopted" into my family. They are as much a part of me as my blood family is. I think of one of my high school friends and her younger sister who i love dearly, and I think of my roommate that I have lived with since my first semester here at BYU Idaho. I call them the sisters God forgot to give me. I was born to four sisters, but I have grown into seven. There is no one definition to the word "family". It has a different connotation with every individual. It can even mean several different things to one person like it does to me. I think the basis for the word lies in a feeling of belonging. Our family is whoever we belong to in one way or another.

Family Dynamics

I am sorry that I haven't been posting anything these last few weeks. As I have mentioned before, I don't blog really, or social network much for that matter, so I forget easily. Anyways, I wanted to talk about our discussion last week on the family dynamics. On thinking about my own family I was amazed at how many connections and varying relationships exist in a family. We talked about how families can have a special connection between a parent and one of the children, or a certain dynamic between siblings. When I analysed my family growing up I found that we have so many different bonds between us. I come from a family with five women and a man-boy. My four older sisters are close in age, followed by my brother who is quite a lot younger than them comparatively, then there is me, closing up as the bookend of the family. You would think that being the youngest, I would be the spoiled baby who received all the parental attention. Not in my family. i admit I am spoiled compared to my older siblings who were raised when my parents were just starting out their family, my father still in dental school, and struggling to provide for his little girls that just kept coming. Yet, it is my sister, the youngest of the four, that is the favored child in our dynamic. I have heard of the middle child being the forgotten, squished in between the oldest siblings who take on a parental-type role toward the younger members, and the youngest who experience the laid back parental control that has weakened as the married couple grow older and too tired to enforce the same strictness they did in the beginning. It is interesting to me that my family is near the opposite. The children fall into a pyramid-like pattern of attention.
I was also intrigued at Brother William's several statements on the importance of a strong marital unit in the home, and how it is vital for a family to succeed. Despite the fact that we don't completely fill this requirement, I would say that my family is a success. Yes, we have our problems, but for the most part we children are quite close and loving toward one another. Our parents however are another story.

Week 1

I am not the Blogger type so please be patient with me as I get used to this. I prefer to discuss and offer my personal insights to those around me rather than a computer. But here goes...

It has been amazing to me this past week just how interconnected my classes are becoming. The principals I learn in my Social Statistics class will be reinforced just an hour later in this class, just as the ideas discussed in my Foundations Capstone course will reappear the next day in the same setting. It is making my educational growth this semester that much more enjoyable, as I can see how certain knowledge is usefull in three different situations within hours of each other.
This is my first semester where I am finally working toward my major. I focused on generals my first two years and dabbled in a few majors before realizing that marriage and Family counceling was my life calling. It's extremely satisfying to be learning about topics I am deeply passionate and curious about. It's a bit of a high seeing my future come closer into focus.