A Sense of Belonging in Family - An Unconditional Kind of Love



Every year, during labor day weekend, my entire extended family meets up to go camping together. Truthfully, the conditions during our camping trip are not the best. The lake is always extraordinarily murky and the weather is guaranteed to be unbearably hot, but none of that matters when I am surrounded by the feeling of love, support, and safety my family brings me; with them, I feel the most sense of belonging. This yearly tradition is a time to bond, share laughs, and spend quality time together. With this trip, come some of the most special activities to do together. We take excursions on a boat out on the lake, surrounding ourselves with the beauty of the sky and the earth.



However, the most stunning aspect is the shared love you can feel. We share every meal together, tell stories over the campfire, and play board games. This pure and interrupted time together makes me feel at peace with my place in the world. This feeling of peace and sense of belonging goes beyond just our annual camping trip, it's whenever I am with my family - at family gatherings, parties, celebrations - that I am able to go to this happy place. It's a kind of happiness that is incomparable. They make me smile so hard that my cheeks hurt, laugh so much I can barely breathe, feel so much happiness I can barely put it into words. There are no other groups of people that I can feel this free with. Our camping trips aren’t what bring us together, they serve as the embodiment of unconditional love for each other. I know that my place is with my family. Regardless of tough situations get, I will always be loved and supported by them. The strength of our bond is unbreakable and tied together not just by blood, but by true care and kindness.



Comments

  1. Melissa BobilaSeptember 18, 2019 at 1:55 PM

    I like how you really expand on how you feel about your family. It allows readers to recognize the strong relationship you have with your family and I think that's what you're trying to portray in this writing – to express this sense of belonging within your family. I think you can further this blog by alluding to specific instances where you connected with your family in addition to this trip to create somewhat of a montage of belonging.

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  2. AnonymousSeptember 18, 2019 at 1:56 PM

    I love the way you talk about your cheeks hurting from smiling too much and how you can barely breathe from laughing. I can feel the joy and happiness this event brings you through those moments. Having you considered adding a couple of nuggets like this, where we can really understand specific feelings you get when you spend time with your family on this vacation in particular throughout your blog post? If you think it sounds like your voice, you could follow the sentence talking about the horrible conditions of murky lakes and hot weather by saying something about how the negatives don't matter as they are overshadowed by safety, support, and love. Perhaps, doing this will better feed into the idea of this being the place where you feel the greatest sense of belonging. I love your blog post, Belle! It made me smile.

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