Our Family Core Values: a Deeper Exploration Beyond the Bonds of Blood

Redefining “Family Values”

According to the Oxford Dictionary, ‘family’ is a group of parents and their children living together as a unit.’ However, is living under the same roof as other people all it takes to make a family? Is this eternal, unbreakable bond exclusively formed by blood and living conditions? In today’s day and age, many of us need a better perception of what Family entails. We believe that Family is merely built through blood relations, and we struggle to think and feel beyond this definition.

Nevertheless, Family is founded on much more than just the DNA we possess, regardless of how it is defined. Sacrifice, friendship, and unconditional love honestly give someone the deserving title of ‘family.’ Amalia G., a welfare worker at the Independent Adoption Center, once said, ‘Our genes do not define Family. It is built and maintained through love.’

When I think of Family, I think of my parents and all they have sacrificed for me. My siblings and I were all born in Colombia, among many relatives. My father’s business was there as well, which was very convenient for him. Overall, life there was very comfortable. However, Jewish schools in Colombia are limited, so we were regularly homeschooled and lacked a social life. Although it was not an easy adjustment, my parents dropped everything and moved to Florida to give us a proper education while enabling us to have many friends.

I was six years old then, so I did not understand why we moved to an entirely unknown and foreign location. Thinking about it now makes me realize how much my parents were sacrificing and how hard it was. Despite the hardships, that is what Family is. When you have a family, you are willing to do anything, even if it means sacrificing something of your own. For my parents, that meant not living near Family and risking their businesses. Nevertheless, they continued to make sacrifices for the people they loved because they wished for what was best for us at the time.

Family Beyond Blood: An Intimate Connection

Although I consider myself fortunate to have a family of my own, many others do not have a family to turn to. These individuals lack the fundamentals of love that most of us experience, whether due to neglect, abuse, or even tragedy. As a result, they seek comfort and support from their friends or neighbors. In their eyes, those individuals are their heroes, Family, and joy. For them, a family does not consist of blood or genetic factors. They were not fortunate enough to receive that, but they were fortunate enough to create bonds with these people whom they can call Family. A well-known author, Joe Manchin, once said, “Every child should have a caring adult in their life, but that is not always a biological parent or family member. Often, it is even a teacher.”

In addition to my biological Family, I have a family of my own that I call my friends. My friends are not just people I happened to meet by chance. My friends care and love me unconditionally, regardless of what may happen. They value our relationship yet seek nothing in return. To love someone fully and unconditionally despite their flaws or shortcomings is precisely what Family means. Deborah Tannen, a Georgetown University professor, interviewed various people about their perspectives on friendship. To her surprise, 80 percent of them told her their friends were their Family. This highlighted the nature of Family and friends and the foundation of what it means to be close. Furthermore, she found that just as Family brings happiness and pain, friendship does too, as the closer the bond, the greater the power to hurt (Tannen, 2016).

Reference

1. Tannen, Deborah. “When Friends Are ‘Like Family.'” Well, 26 Mar. 2016, archive.nytimes.com/well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/25/when-friends-are-family.

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