The Story Makers

Family connections are so strong in fact, that a hard life is often viewed as the result of improper behavior committed by ones’ ancestors (Wubker 2008).

In more ways than one, your family teaches you things that are true to only you. Like, in Amy Ma’s essay she

A family consists of a couple key parts. First, the family plays an enormous role in one’s life by influencing the children. Due to the children

While social status is becoming more distinct, family relationships are diminishing. It is common while walking through the mall to hear a young girl sassing her mother, or a pair of siblings unpleasantly bickering with one another. Around 10,000 years ago this extreme, malicious behavior was rare because early civilizations were kinship based, meaning that ties of blood and marriage bound groups together. This foundation emphasized the concept of family, involving respect between siblings of the opposite sex, children and parents, and between children-in-law and their parents-in-law. With the advent of industrialization came big cities, causing families to break apart as members moved around for jobs. There remains a kinship among immediate family, but not extended family like in ancient times. Will Durant believes that family is the nucleus of civilization, an idea that our society must readopt from earlier peoples.

For this assignment, I interviewed my wonderful mother Joan. I asked her for her opinion on the topics of marriage, sibling relationships, and grandparent relationships. She provided insightful answers that revealed a great deal about her values.

The idea of family is something that most people strive to have, and they travel amazing journeys and make difficult sacrifices in order to maintain the integrity of their family. The bonds of family can motivate a person to make large changes for the betterment of their family. In many cases a person will sever a piece of their self in order to maintain the integrity of their family. People will go through great lengths to maintain their families, as is evident in “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty, “Babylon Revisited” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and “Intervention” by Jill McCorkle.

Family will always be your most loyal supporter, reinforcement, and backing, through rain or shine. Although this idea is common in our society today, it is not always the truth. Some families are not as close to each other and are not always the most supportive. Dicey’s commitment and devotedness to her family, and them to her, amazed, as well as moved, me immensely. This Cynthia Voigt book was very well written, and all those whom enjoy earnest and heartwarming stories should take this book to heart.

family, the type of person who wouldn't accept a no for the things he wanted or desired. As the

Adapting to a military lifestyle/ culture is quite an experience. The military culture itself differs greatly from the culture that most of us know as the norm. Those who teach us the new way of life are very influential, even if it don’t feel like it during training. Drill Sergeants are the foundation of the Army, they are the select few, the top 10% in their MOS, who have been chosen to breakdown, build up, form, and train the new Army soldiers. Drill Sergeants have a tendency to be misconstrued, and have a bad impression in most people’s opinions. Before beginning basic combat training, for the most part, I had the same misconception about them too. While at basic combat training, I had one Drill Sergeant that left a huge

Most families do not fit the ideals of the nuclear family, so we can relate to these abnormal relationships. These group of friends

The second chapter, of the book “Family Interaction”, focuses on the theme of family strategies and boundaries. While reading, I noticed that my family has similarities and dissimilarities with other family members. Several topics that interested me were open and closed boundaries, and maintenance resources. My family is enmeshed and has internal boundaries, but other members of my family are on a continuum. For example, my family is very accepting and open to letting friends and spouses come over our house for special occasions the holidays. However, as a family we can be very different as a sub-unit. For example, with my mother I was often allowed to stay the night over a friend’s house, and later when I got older my boyfriends were allowed

My family has always been very close. We spend a great deal of time together and express our deep feelings and emotions with one another. If one of us has an issue, every member of the family is aware of it and shares the burden. When a person in the family does not share significant information about one’s life with the rest of the members, there is hurt feelings. Also, if a member cannot attend a family event, the family feels disappointed and misses the absent member. It is evident that connectedness is held as extremely valuable.

My own personal experience plays a part here as I don’t believe my family was ever “fully actualized.” Independence and autonomy was stressed, however, warmth and connectedness between members was not. Feelings were definitely suppressed in my household growing up, and even today sharing openly feels awkward. Whitaker, as well as Satir, has inspired my theoretical framework because I see the importance of the affective or emotional layer of family interactions.

I have a very small family, all of whom have greatly contributed to who I am today. My family, all of whom are living, include my parents and all four grandparents. Although my family’s beliefs and upbringings has greatly affected me, everything about me has indirectly come from my grandparents. My maternal grandparents and paternal grandparents had a strong influence on my parents, which affected my parent’s upbringing. My maternal grandmother is naturally skeptical and somewhat judgmental. However, she is also very caring and genuinely worries about everyone. On the other hand, my maternal grandfather is very humorous and goofy, but is also somewhat naïve. Although they seem to be very different, they both have similar opinions and

Next door resides a variety of relatives, whose precise relations to me are sometimes unclear: they are always characterized by a "great" or a "second" or a "once removed." Once when I was thirteen, a family came to visit who were relatives of my relatives, a family that included a fine-looking young male specimen with a firm and nicely bronzed chest. Before deciding if it was acceptable to flirt with him, I had to sit down and draw out a family tree to figure out whether he was blood-related. He wasn't.