The Most Important Thing In My Life

When I need someone to laugh and have fun with — someone to learn from; or just someone to talk to — I have my whole family with me to do so. I know that my mom, my dad, my sister, and my brother will always be there for me when I need someone to be with when I’m not feeling like myself — and I know they will be patient and try to empathize with what I might be feeling. I believe that family is the most important thing in one’s life. My brother helps me to have fun, my sister listens to what I have to say, my mom teaches me to be patient, and my dad tells me to be curious and open-minded. I take in all of this and think how lucky I am.
My dad always tells my brother, my sister, and me that family is most important, and that family should always come first before others. His belief influenced me greatly. What he says makes me stop and think. My dad and my mom have family overseas, hundreds and hundreds of miles away in Cambodia. My dad has been without his biological mother and siblings for about thirty-four years, since the separation during when the Khmer Rouge was taking over Cambodia from 1975-1979. In 2004, we all went to Cambodia to visit the rest of my family, who I barely knew. I try to empathize with what it would be like without my little brother, my sister, and my parents, but all the same, it was very hard to imagine. This experience of taking a moment to empathize with what it would be like in some else’s shoes, made me look at my life differently. What if I didn’t have my siblings anywhere near me? What if they were somewhere overseas with no way for me to see them? What if I had no mother, no father, no sister, no brother; what if it was just me, alone with no family? The sudden revelation made me think of all the “what ifs” and how things could have have been different. But I know how fortunate I am to have a