Family affection is one of the most important things to have in your family; without it, everything will fall apart.

I have an amazing immediate family that I’m very close with. We have moved quite a few times, which has made us grow very close. We are originally from Texas, but then we moved to Israel, and now we are living in California. Whenever you move to a new place, you don’t really know anyone there, at least for the first few weeks. So you stick close to the people you know. I love my parents very much; every night we say goodnight with a hug and a kiss. My brother, sister, and I are also very close. Yes, we are all close in age, but a major factor is that we are always there for each other, especially when we are in an unfamiliar place.

However, I also have a very close extended family. We love serving each other, like cooking or giving gifts to one another. As a result of being the eldest cousin, I do all the babysitting to serve my family. We are also a very competitive bunch. We love playing games together, like ping pong or beanbag toss. Since my immediate family and I move so much, we don’t see our extended family as much as we’d like to. When I lived in Israel, we saw each other only once a year, rather than in Texas, where we’d see each other at least once a month. It’s extremely hard to go back to your home country every holiday, so who do we celebrate with if we can’t celebrate with our extended family?

The answer to my tormenting question is, a “makeshift” family. These were our very close friends that became our family/community. A key part of our being so close is that we were all going through the same thing, being in an unfamiliar country with no connections. There were five families that were really close and were like a family, and then there was a bigger group of 10 families which were our community. Some people I grew so close to that I still talk to them every day. I think they were such a blessing to me and my experience in Israel would not have been so incredible without them. We always stood up for each other, even though we teased each other. We created such a close bond that will never break our whole lives. We didn’t really show affection exactly, except for goodbyes, but we always knew that we loved each other.

In the long run, families and communities are incredible blessings. I’m thankful everyday for my immediate family, my extended family, and my “makeshift family.” It’s important to keep them close because you never know what the future holds, and when you will need them most.