The memories we make are part of the things that make life fun and worth living for us as humans, they are an active antidote for depression. Having people around one's life who make life easier and comfortable despite the challenges one is facing is valuable and worth celebrating. Looking back since the beginning of this year, I've had quite some experiences that are not documented with snapshots, but the few I have taken are most likely with my family. I am a lover of family, and I hold them in high esteem; to me, family is everything. Having people who have your back any day and anytime is a blessing. Someone may say not all family gets one's back in bad times, well yes, that's true but I'm grateful for mine because they are the biggest and most precious gift I've received.
My parents taught me the importance of family and I have come to believe that family has a major role to play in one's life. If not at the early stage of one's life, there will be a time when one looks back, all friends and colleagues would be nowhere to be found, and the only people one would be left with are one's family. It might not be the extended family but one's immediate family which includes one's parents and siblings. I call my family my backbone, my solution provider; no matter how difficult things might get, they are always ready to listen to me and fight through the storm with me; what, then, can be a more precious gift than the gift of the family?
Many cases of truancy we faced in our community today started with the family upbringing, or status of the family coupled with peer pressure and many other factors. Once we get it wrong at the family level, it is always difficult to correct it outside the family interference because the result will always point back to the family. I have a friend that I've been trying to reach out to till now but to no avail, I only wish she is fine wherever she is. Her parents, especially her mother, are the root cause of her problems. She is the second child of the family and being a female, she and her other siblings are not being well taken care of. Their mother is always changing her matrimonial home like she's changing clothes. Ever since I've known her family, her mother has re-married in nothing less than four times. Leaving her husband, who is my father's friend, for some other men, at the end of the day, if where she went to isn't favorable, she would come back to her ex-husband again.
I believe female children or children should be given proper care and attention to avoid being driven away by material things. This particular friend of mine took up the responsibility of a mother at a young age because whenever her mother is away on her voyage to another man's house, she is always there to fill the vacuum of the mother which includes working extra hard to cater for her younger siblings who are also females. On the journey, she was faced with lots of challenges, or, should I say, tribulations, because she was faced with challenges much bigger than her age. Amidst the storm, she got pregnant and had to move in with her so-called boyfriend. Now she is being abandoned, and no one knows her whereabouts. Her mental health isn't stable; she is just too young for what she is facing or has faced previously.
Family is the foundation of every and any child, and once the foundation is destroyed, the building will not stand erect. Fights are inevitable in a family, but the strong bond that connects them is always there to erase every grudge and bring back the love that should exist between the family. I'm grateful for mine and they contribute to the best memories of my life.
All iimages are mine
Thanks for your time, and your comments will be appreciated.