You Need One!

"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: 

whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one." - JANE HOWARD

So, here goes my first-ever blog entry that doesn't involve full-time missionary work! :) I hope they'll still be somewhat interesting, seeing that I'm not living in Jamaica anymore, but I think anywhere can be excited if we make it fun!!

I am enrolled in a Family Relations class this semester, and man, I NEVER thought a class could be so interesting! At first I felt like the hour and a half block would never end, but as we have begun to discuss things more in detail and getting into the attacks on families lately, I find myself getting hungry for more. Sometimes it's hard to get up when class ends because I just want the conversation to keep going and going and going! It's probably because the family has always been something so dear to my heart, and now we get to talk about it for hours! :) But I think that gives me more of an opportunity to go figure more out on my own even when I can't have class.

Something that we were talking about in class on Thursday this week was about all the different types of ways the family has been changing over time. We discussed how many couples nowadays decide to delay marriage, maybe because they don't even see the point of marriage or because it's simpler and cheaper to just live together. We see on the movies, in the hallways, and hear from our friends the trend of sex outside marriage. We see the sad cases, even our close friends and family members, of single mothers just barely scraping by, with bags under their eyes and searching for some ray of hope. We see how less and less importance is being placed on the family, with birth and fertility rates declining and house sizes going down. And it honestly makes me sad, because I remember how happy my family made me growing up. We talked about statistics in class, about how with the population droppings. Let's say 4 couples decide to just have one child, like a lot of couples are doing nowadays. And then, because of the way they were raised or personal desires, those children also decide to have a single child as well, and so on and so forth for four generations. Refer to the picture. We find that after four generations of having one child, that child will be left with no cousins, no aunts or uncles, no other extended family. It struck me HARD about how having children really effects our future, both individually but also for the children that follow in our footsteps!

I am aware that the family is being redefined a lot lately, and I respect those efforts to have any type of family. But I think I really learned how important it is for me to both stand up for the family and also to ensure to do every single thing that I can, as Camille, to protect and prepare my family, both present and future.

I'm really grateful for these things that I learned; I thought they were SO interesting and I hope that as I prepare myself to have my own family someday, that I can start taking these things into account and apply different things into who I am.

I'm also super happy that I've been blessed with an awesome family, with faults and weaknesses! Those downfalls and struggles we all possess have already shaped us into the family we are today, and we'll hopefully be able to continue this great journey together in love and patience!

Stay tuned for another post this coming week! :)