For some of us at UCF, it's Family Weekend.

This past weekend was family weekend at UCF. It's a time where family and child reunite. It is an oppportunity for families to really get to explore the campus and run wild. Weekends like this really are difficult because my family isn't here. It gets to be really hard to listen to my peers grumble at the fact that their families are here and discuss how hard it is not to drink while tailgating. If only all the world's issues were as "difficult" as that.

Anyway, I know had my parents been here, I would probably be the same way. I would probably rather them not be here interrupting my new found freedom. I would want them kept at a distance. But they aren't here and the distance between them and myself is not voluntary. When I signed up for this whole UCF college thing, I did it with the intentions of being able to see my family when I needed to. I did it so I can go home whenever I wanted to and have a lively house to return to with meals prepared just for me. (I know, how spoiled does that sound.) I had everything figured out. It's just a bummer that none of it happened that way and none of it will.

I have learned something this past weekend though. I realized how important my friends are to me, and I realized how much I need them to always be there. Well, four certain people anyway. And what's really cool is that I know they always will. This is just such a stressful time in my life, and a lot of times I really do feel alone. But when I think about Chris, Jonathan, Genna, and Rachel, I realize that as of right now I have all the family I need. When we aren't together I am usually thinking about them and praying for their constant safety. If anything were to happen to them I would just lose it. I sincerely would not be able to cope with that. When we are done with college and move on to the next stage of life, it is going to take a whole lot of work for these people to not keep in contact with me. They will have to completely change their names and move out of the US. It will have to be drastic. What those four don't know is that they will never be able to get rid of me. They are a white shirt and I am spaghetti sauce. No matter how hard they try, I will pretty much always be there.

They are my family, and I am not planning on letting them go.
There is no other group of people I would want to experience this whole "life" thing with.