Journal of Life

While I was growing up, I spent a lot of time with someone I consider to be my best friend; Tom. We lived on the same street, only a few houses apart. We first met when I was about 5 years old. I was bored one day, and my mother suggested that I go down the street and meet the new kid on the block. I remember very little since the, and couldn’t even tell you the first time we did anything together. We spent nearly all of our free time together from Elementary school, right through until the end of High School. When I say Tom is a good friend, I really mean that he’s a good friend. He has many great qualities and personality traits that I genuinely admire. I believe that Tom turned out to be such a respectable person because of his family. His father had been an elementary school teacher for a large part of his career and was very good at what he did. His mother is an accountant, who chooses her job opportunities based on how much value she can give back to society. Both of Toms’ parents are strong, but warm people. Since Toms’ father was young, his family owned a stretch of land out in middle-of-nowhere Ontario, which they had used as a tree farm. The tree farm is not the most exciting part of the land, it is the four cottages that his family built on the land, one for each of Toms’ uncles. Toms’ father loves their little tree farm, and it’s easy to see why. Life there is simple. In one place it holds the past, the current and the future. Life at Toms’ cottage can be explained very simply, meaningful relationships. Their whole extended family spends many weekends and all holidays together there. Everyone in their family is open, conversational and leads their own unique and interesting life. (I am running out of adjectives to descibe these people!). When they come together it really is an amazing experience. They all have something really valuable and special to bring to the family, and they all lead richer lives because they give more into the family than they take away. I think that therein lies the key to a rich, fulling life. Meaningful relationships. Relationships where all parties give more than they take.

This family has such a strong supporting stucture. I have always been impressed and very respectful of this family, however I never really realized why until now.