Family: The Influence

by: Nehemiah L. Hemingway

There are those in your life that comfort you and make you feel loved and those that actually love you. Sometimes you cannot distinguish between the two. No one really wants to be alone, so given the opportunity to be loved and accepted you ignore any possibility of it being a lie. There are people that believe that the family that you are born into is the only family option available, some make their own family trees, and others are taken in. Each situation, as in life in general, is due to a decision or circumstance. Sometimes the family that you are born into is not right for you; maybe you feel the least loved by these people. It is okay to formulate your own family. It is obvious that it can’t be helped what family you are born into; that is why some choose to create there own family: a close friend, a teacher, a church family, and yes, even a gang. No matter what family you choose, one must make sure that the decision is going to benefit you not only emotionally but spiritually, mentally, and physically as well. Some people end up with people that they felt would benefit them more, but ended up in far worse situations. Other times, you don’t realize that no matter what you have went through with your family that they love you more than you think they do. You end up turning your back on the people that truly cared for you and follow the wrong path or one more difficult. Most times people join gangs due to the path they eventually end up on. They feel as if their own family does not care for them, so why should they care for their own well being? They become lost and confused which forces them to make bad decisions.

You also have to realize that it is never too late to ask forgiveness from the one’s that really love you. It does not mean that the person is going to forgive you immediately, for you must realize that you were not the only one that was hurt. Sometimes family forces you to do things that you don’t feel that is honest and you feel hurt for doing so, but you feel that if your family wants you to that you must. Family can be cruel, dishonest, evil, ignorant, and care only of them self, but don’t believe that you have to follow the same path. Yet there are those that are raised to be that way from a young age. Given the opportunity to get out of that situation I suggest you do so. Most often you are so far in that a way out seems unlikely. Blame cannot always be put on others; one must realize when they themselves are at fault.

Influenced by those that lack the sense to care finding one’ self caught in the web of glorified lies and a life that has no rewarding end, unless death would be considered a worthy prize. Innocence flooded with false knowledge drowning in the world of sin and soaked by the wages of it all. Taking grip to a promise that doesn’t have a handle on itself. Searching for a way out; realizing that the blindfold was on the entire way in and hoping that those of truth and love are not just memories of a past life. Praying there remains a hand willing to guide the beaten spirit out of the maze of fear. Lost, but not forgotten, moving into a realm of loneliness believing it to be the end. The young and naïve misunderstand the ability in life to turn over a new leaf and be forgiven.