Blood Is As Thick As Water

This blog post was inspired by:
Fathers Who Leave Their Children Behind

All of my life I have been battling with the concept of "family".
What is it?
What do we as people have to do to attain it?
What does it mean to truly be apart of a "family"?
  
     Whenever I think of family I think of my cousin Jasmine Patterson. Jasmine was born into the arms of a drug addict and a prostitute. When she was only 2 years old, her mother (Sara Ross) would leave her in the house alone to fulfill her desire of being sexually used. Her dad (Michael Patterson) would smoke weed and inject heroine in his veins with his young daughter sitting directly next to him. When my grandmother (Sue Patterson) found out about this, she immediately removed Jasmine from that house to live with her; this infuriated Sara. Many years later, during an argument between Sue and Sara a secret was unveiled: "Jasmine is not your granddaughter. Michael isn't the father." Anytime my grandmother would talk about this moment she would sob for hours. In my grandmother's opinion,"Jasmine for many years lived a lie. She lived in an alternate reality."

     This mindset confused me because it made me wonder what a "family" truly was. Is a family a group of people that care about themselves and aren't willing to give up bad habits? I know who my family is. Yes, I am fortunate to have a strong mother and father who love and care for me. But I also have other groups of "family". I have my many friends, my close teachers, and all the people around the world who truly care for me. That is what a family is.

Blood is as thick as water.
Sue is Jasmine's grandmother and they are connected by LOVE.