In what way do our families define us?

If I ask about the family, most people will immediately think about mother, father, children and relatives. In the Oxford English Dictionary we can read:
Family - the group of persons consisting of the parents and their children, whether actually living together or not; in wider sense, the unity formed by those who are nearly connected by blood or affinity.
In my opinion, the definition given by dictionary is almost true, but I have to say that this term is broader. Family more precisely is a group of people who might not be related by blood or marriage but who care and love each other. What is more every member of the particular family is shaped and influenced by his or her relatives. My family is not very big because my parents do not have any sisters and brothers. As a result, I used to call every friend of my mum or dad aunt or uncle and nowadays I call many of my friends my cousins or even my sisters or brothers. I feel that my actions can by justified as I care about these people and I receive from them a lot of love and support.

Some people can claim that friends cannot be called family, as they are not connected by blood, marriage or adoption and that real relatives have some common elements that linked them with each other. An answer to this claim is very easy. People in a group of friends always have same interests and hobbies. They spend a lot of time together and create unique relations. It proves that they are very similar and that they can call themselves a family. What is more in order to have a family you need to have a friendship. Every family has some problems and conflicts, but at the end, nobody will deny the love to each other. I treat my parents like my friends and I enjoy spending time with them. I very often look for some elements common for my mum or dad in my friends. As a result, my boyfriend has a very similar personality to my dad. He is an attention seeker, he is very easy going but in the same time very gentle and sensible. My best friend as my mother loves reading books and watching good movies, she is very religious and she always can find time for everybody. Parents always shape our way of noticing people and society. If we have a good contact with them, we will always try to live among people who are similar to them.

The traditional model of family implies that family should consist of father, mother, children and of course relatives. Moreover, every member of the family is to play a particular role. The common Polish conception gives an idea that a father is a head of the family. He makes the most important and difficult decisions and the mother is a neck that supports the head. It describes family as a body, or in other words as a machine in which every element and part is necessary so it can work and function effectively.

The conception of head and neck is very suitable for a description of my family. My father cares about every bill, he can fix everything that is broken, from a lamp at my desk to the car, he also takes cares of my sick grandmother. My mum never asks my dad to do something. They divided their duties at the beginning of their marriage so now they never argue about it. My mother is in charge of home duties but she does not complain about it because she knows that my father has always something important to do as well as she has. I am somehow in between, I help my mum or my dad, it depends who needs me more in a particular situation. We share our duties with my friends in the same way. For example when we go somewhere for holidays girls always are responsible for cooking, shopping and they also have to find some good places to have fun in the particular city that we are going to. While boys have to organize place to sleep, transport and of course, they have to protect girls. Simple situations of our life help us to prepare for the future. It proves that rules that are common in family can be also used among friend and it again justifies my decision that I call my friends my family.

My parents are my authorities. I think I do not do it consciously but I try to live in the way they do. I create my relations with my friends as they taught me. I am to young to have my own family but I want to realize myself in the group of my best friends, who are my close relatives. I do not consider family to be just blood relations, but also people who care for me the most. My parents gave me the most important values and they shaped my personality. Now I know how to choose my friends and how to plan my life in the fiture.