I’m sure you all are tired of hearing me talk about my family, but as we enter the holiday season, that’s the only thing on my mind. As a child, holidays represented being surrounded not only by blood relatives but by chosen family as well. My memories of these times are filled with cookie decorating, Pictionary disasters (shoutout to my neighbor who helped invent Pictionary: thanks for all the memories), and hours-long poker games with my favorite people. But above all, these memories are full of an all-encompassing feeling of love.
To love and to be loved is a privilege, and it is one that I am immensely grateful to have. And as I reflect, I realize that I have rarely taken the time to thank those in my life that have loved me unconditionally, and allowed me to do the same in return.
So thank you to my parents, my brother, and my dogs, for being my home. Thank you to my grandparents and uncles and cousins and second cousins and all the family in my life that allowed me to be raised in a family filled with love. It is because of all of you that I am able to love without fear.
But most of all, thank you, Nate and Lydia, for allowing me the privilege to love and to have been loved by you. Thank you for being the family that I got to choose, and for allowing me to understand the privilege that is love.
As we enter the holiday season, I encourage all of you to take the time to tell the people you love that you love them. Even if it doesn’t necessarily feel like it, loneliness is a feeling, not a fact. You are never alone: there will always be somebody out there who loves you, and it is my hope that you come to understand the beauty of that.
And take the time to give yourself some love as well. you made it through another year; that’s an accomplishment in itself. Happy holidays, Upper Arlington, we’ll see you in the new year.
