I do remember my first definition of family in basic school as vividly as ever. The teacher made us repeat the definition everyday about 10 times and every single time we would say " A family is a group of people who are related by blood, marriage or adoption". I can't help but think to myself that this very definition narrowed my understanding of family to my father, my mother and my siblings.
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But after leaving basic school to high school, I met a lot of people, complete strangers from different corners of the world, people I barely knew, we would sit in the same class throughout both the boring and the interesting lessons. We would laugh and mock at one another for making mistakes. We would all be in trouble for annoying a teacher and we would do the punishment together. Then I began to ask myself, why do I feel at home even though my mother, my father or any of my siblings were absent??? So I began to question the entire concept of family but I still stuck with my high school definition which was basically no different from my basic school definition and called these people friends.
After falling terribly ill, I had this one friend, every one calls him Nat for short, but his name was Nathaniel. He wouldn't go to class, he would just sit by me, keeping me company whilst everyone was in Class, he would buy me drugs, get me food to eat, update my parents on my condition. Then at midnight, my illness became serious, I honestly tought I was going to die. Without asking for permission, Nat went out of campus, found a cab to take me to the hospital. I watched him beg the nurse for assistance as we didn't have enough money to even allow us into the clinic. I was speechless not because of my condition, my heart was dumfounded, I run out of words. Then after the nurse decided to help, he walked straight up to me still sitting on the wheelchair, the he said to me "everything's is gonna be alright bro".
That's when it hit me, bro as in brother, this guy knew me for barely two years, we were not related in anyway except for the basic fact that we are all humans. After class that day, the whole class visited in the hospital with all sorts of gifts. As I lay down on my bed paralyzed by my ill health, I was in another way moved by how much love I was being shown.
I sat there questioning myself about the concept of family all over again.
The Ultimate Question: What is a family??
A family, indeed is a group of people who are related by blood, marriage or adoption. It goes beyond this definition, to me, a family is a group of friends that understand one another and most importantly have bonded over time. The member of this group(family) show unconditional love towards one another. They are always there for you through thick and thin. They have made a conviction to love you for who you are despite who you are. That is the true meaning of family.
So as you go about at your workplace, or in school, church, wherever it is, if it feels like home to you, then family is definitely present.
Remember steemians, we at a family too. Definitely feels like home to me, I get to talk about what I want and people get to listen( in this sense) read and appreciate your passion. #steemitfamily is growing.