Families: A System

Families are the most important social system we will ever belong to. They almost completely make us who we become. Whether you like it our not, your family has helped make you who you are and subsequently, you will find that you have the similar habits and values. From the time we are born till we are 18(usually) our family is who we spend the most amount of time with. We may spend some of the time at school or day cares, but at the end of the day, you go back to your family. Children learn a lot from observation. I remember when I was little, I thought all moms or female adults would walk or bend over with their hand resting on their lower back. So as a little girl pretending to be an adult, I would walk around the house with my hand resting on the small of my back, pretending to do something important. This is not actually a thing all adults do, just my mom. Another example of how we are molded by our families would be our political views. My parents and all my older siblings and I are part of the same party. because we all have the same values.

Even though, a lot of who we are stems from our family, we also have our individuality. For example, I am an animal lover. As a child I was obsessed with them and had a different power point every week on why we should have a dog. I never got one. I was the only one in my family who was passionate about animals. so where did that come from? It wasn't my family that's for sure. I don't believe school instilled a love of animals in me so where did that come from? Or my love of swimming? I believe that comes from our own personality that we develop that is uniquely us. It's what makes us different. If everyone was an exact replica of the family, there would not be as much diversity in the world.

I love my family and I am so glad that I have become who I am today because of them. Although no family is perfect and there are certainly qualities I have from my family which I am not grateful for, the good ones make up for it. And that's the beautiful thing about individuality, you can change some aspects of who you are.