Family & Traditions
Family. A simple word but can have many meanings behind it. Family can mean something different to every person, depending on how they were raised. To me, family is so important, and growing up I never really understood how grateful I should be for my family. Now, in college and being away from my family, I learned how grateful I am for them.
My family was never one for traditions, but the things we did routinely for years are very important to me and i’ll always remember them. For as long as I could remember my family and two other families would meet up at one of our houses every sunday to watch football and hang out. My sister, my family friend Julia, all the mom’s, and I would cook food and make desserts together. Although it seems very simple, it was something that impacted my life. All my family friends were my role models and shaped me into the person I am.
Ever since I was younger I always wanted a career that had to do with helping people or doing something for the good of someone else. This was because of the way I was raised. My mom is a social worker and is such an amazing human being and I always look up to her. When I was younger she worked with people who suffered from drug or alcohol abuse, and now she works with people in a construction company. I really haven’t given my mom enough appreciation for all the things she has done for me and others. My grandmother, before she retired, was a Special Education teacher. I also admire her for putting others before herself. My grandmother and my mom are my two role models in life. They are both extraordinary people who have the most genuine hearts and are just good human beings. I hope one day I can be at least half the person they are.
Social Issues is a very new thing for me, I never used to follow social problems until early January. I realized that it was extremely ignorant of me to ignore all the social issues going on around our country and the world. I care about social issues because they are important, even if it doesn’t effect me personally, it still effects someone. A social issue I have been involved with for some time is the gun violence epidemic that has been a problem for way too long. Luckily, I have not been effected directly by gun violence, but I know many people who have. I went to a walk out at my school in 2018 in support of the #MarchForOurLives and #NeverAgain movements.
Social Media has definitely played a role in my family life. Personally, I spend a lot of time on social media and I use it constantly. Social media ties into my family experiences because every single one of my family members has a social media presence and sometimes there can be conflict. Social media can connect you with family members that live far away which is such a good thing. It is always hard to see family members that live across the country so social media is so helpful in that aspect. It also connects you with the close family because of the pandemic going on. The global pandemic has effected everyone in different ways. For me, the pandemic definitely impacted my family. We did grow closer, however we have had many arguments and fights. When we were all quarantined for that period of time in March, it was hard being together all the time. It was inevitable that we were going to have fights. But as time went on we did grow closer as a family and bonded over different things. My family went to a Black Lives Matter protest together in June and that brought us even closer together.
