When most people think of the word family, mother, father, children, and relatives immediately come to mind. While all this can be true of a family, it is not the only correct way that family can be defined. Family is more accurately described as a group of people who might not be related by blood or marriage but who sincerely care and love each other. Family is there every step of the way and provides support that cannot be found anywhere else. The structure and idea of family has changed a lot over time. There used to be no such thing as divorce; it used to be that one would get married out of convenience, not love, and stay together until death. This is still the case in some places, but in most of the world, it is not. Now people get married for love and if sadly their marriage does not work then they can separate. From this, we get single-parent families, step-families, and half siblings. My family would be considered the “standard” family; I have a father, mother, and three siblings. But not all families are traditional. One very common misconception about family is that its members have to be related by blood. In truth, a family is a group of people who love and care about each other. Other people include very close friends as part of this group in general. There are kids that live in foster care or are adopted or live with other relatives besides their parents. Even homosexual couples start families. There are so many kinds of families it is hard to list them all.
Families are the building blocks of any society and have been this way since the beginning. Almost every aspect of our lives involves the term family. In our religion, we are part of a “family” of believers. At school, we are part of one big “family” of students and faculty. In high school, I was on the cross country team. When I joined this team, I joined a family. This team helped each other through hard practices, long races,