Family Essay, Research Paper

Adam Davis

18 February 1997

Eng. 15.21

What Family Is To Me

Since birth, I have grown up with a different concept of family than most people

do. Instead of being born into my biological family, I was adopted into my given family. I

have known I was adopted, for as long as I can remember because my parents made sure

to tell me so, at the earliest age that I could understand. By adopting me and my sister

into the family, my parents showed that family means love, respect and sacrifice. My

adoption gave me a family to belong to and be loved by.

Love is the first part in any family. I can be defined in more ways than one.

Family love is the strongest type because it is unconditional. This unconditional love

means that no matter what happens my family will still love me. They have shown this

love for twenty years now. And after all the things I have done wrong, or done badly, my

family still shows this unconditional love to me and to each other.

The second part in a family is respect and trust. Trust is something that can take

years to build, but can be broken very easily. By breaking trust with a family member one

is also breaking respect of the family. The two ideas go hand in hand. My parents

respected me enough to tell me that I was adopted, instead of lying to me and having me

find out later in life that I wasn’t their biological son. This respect that my parents gave

me, in turn gave me their trust. And I gave them the respect and trust that was given to

me.

Without sacrifice, a family cannot be. The sacrifices that family members make for

each other show the willingness to be an unselfish part of a family. Sacrifices also display

the love, respect and trust in a family. I know that even though some of the time it may

not seem that my parents would sacrifice anything for me, I realize that they would do

anything for and everything for me and that I would do the same for them. At times it’s

the smallest sacrifices that make the biggest difference in a family.

Families do not have to be biological. Here in Altoona, I have a chosen family of

friends who I consider to be just as close as a family. Among my chosen family, one can

find love, respect and trust, and sacrifice for one another. As a chosen family we still

work the same way that a given family does, by having a sense of belonging and a sense of

love toward each other.