GC: Family

I was gonna write this on Friday like I have the last two, but it was actually my last day in Oregon with my family so I was rather occupied with stuff and couldn’t get around to typing this. So, as I seem to always do on this commute, I’m writing this entry on the flight back home to Boston.

Does it feel weird to call it that? No. I remember being in France and referring returning to Parthenay as returning home from wherever I was traveling, even if the medieval town wasn’t perfectly compatible with my personality like Boston is. I reread some of the journal entries I wrote in France over break, and came across an entry written around November of that year that made that remark. Interestingly, I didn’t seem super enthusiastic about calling it “home,” but I was nonetheless complacent, aware that my days there were numbered and I should just enjoy and get to know it it while I could. On the other hand, almost by my own volition I’ve moved to the urban east coast of the USA and am extremely happy there, completely satisfied with the environment I live in. In comparison to my limited time in a countryside town in the middle of nowhere, I don’t know where I’m going to be after my time at Harvard. I’m only left with the delicious feeling of having the world completely open to me, opportunities to look for that could literally take me anywhere.

Haha I’m getting way too sidetracked. How does this all relate to my being grateful for my family? I suppose I am thankful for my family having raised me this way and for having encouraged me to be who I am and chase after my dreams. It’s cliché, but I wouldn’t be who I am without my parents. Although ever since moving to the east coast my time spent with them is short, and I’m almost always just raring to be elsewhere when I am, I’m never going to be unappreciative of everything they have done for me ever since before I was born. I don’t know if they ever regret having raised such a feisty, charismatic, independent daughter, wishing she might be a bit less fiery-tongued (and able to be in around six languages now), but hey… that’s not my problem.

Was that mean? I dunno. What matters is that I’m confident in who I am and can completely rely on myself for whatever it is I want to pursue. (Besides boys, but I can’t really deal with that right now lol.) Whenever I find myself in a faraway place that I’ve never been to before, I don’t feel “homesick” at all, and when people ask me if I miss my family, I always just reply no. Thanks to the unwavering support of my parents no matter where I find myself and how far away I am from them, I have the pretty convenient ability of feeling at home anywhere, as long as I know how to open my heart and mind to others and their way of life. I think that’s one of the most important things they’ve imparted to me, and for that I’m very thankful.