UNTITLED Annika Sengupta 6th Grade • National Teachers Academy
I didn’t really know what to say at the beginning of writing this. I kept on beginning and beginning but could never get past the beginning. I think that’s one small piece of what being in a family is like. You keep on having beginnings with them but there’s never really an ending. There’s so much joy, and also at times pain, with shared experiences with family and at every stage of life, what family means evolves constantly. Family is a lot of things for me. One thing, in particular, I believe about family is that support is a big factor. My family pushes me to see my potential because most of the time even I can’t. When I think I’m alone they're right there to show me that I am definitely not. Another aspect of families — and it definitely is relevant for mine — is that it is the imperfections in our family that makes us stronger. I’ve seen a lot of movies about families through my 12 years of age. And most of them, in my opinion, have it completely wrong. In the movies, the family is typically imperfect at the beginning, either they are broken up, fighting, or just plain dislike each other. Then, in the end, they come together or learn the importance of family. In reality, a family is always imperfect, even if it’s subtle. Sometimes the imperfection is just one being annoyed about how another one eats. Other times it’s bigger things. A family will never be perfect but that’s the great thing about them. Here at home, we work through our imperfections as a family.
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