Drifting apart
Losing connections with family causes distance to grow
Photo by Margaret Debenport
October 4, 2018
Family is one of the most important things to nearly everyone, but sometimes the distance between a family causes them to grow apart. When you live in one country, and your family lives in another, it can be difficult to keep that relationship with them. It becomes very easy for people to become distant, even those who you were once close to.
“It’s like having a best friend next to you,” junior Dulce Bustamante said. “But you can’t have that best friend next to you because you can’t see them, and you can’t talk to them.”
When you are close to your family, it isn’t any different than having your closest friend next to you. However, sometimes that close friend is a thousand miles away. You grow distant and don’t talk as often to them as you wish you could.
“We definitely get more distant the more we don’t see each other,” senior Juan Pena-Garcia said, “Being born in America is very different because we don’t get the same lifestyle [as our family who lives in Mexico] get[s], so I just feel it makes us more distant from each other.”
Even if a person is born in a different country and is raised in a separate environment, they are still family.
“[Our relationship] is pretty good, but [our relationship] is different because I’m not there,” freshman Angela Olande said, “So, when we talk sometimes it’s pretty awkward because you don’t know what to talk about with them.”
Communication is a key part of any kind of relationship. Even if it’s just for a couple of minutes, talking to family is important. It can strengthen a bond that may be on the edge of breaking or even create a new one.
“We are family, but when I see them it does not feel like family — it feels like we are strangers,” junior Juan Bustamante said. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen them. I don’t know if they still like the same stuff that they used to, or how their personalities have changed.”
It’s easy to feel distant from them, especially since they live far away from each other. It’s like being close to someone and then suddenly that person leaves, or goes some place where you can no longer see them as often.
Family is family and the distance between one another should not have to affect the way that people are connected. Growing apart and becoming independent is normal in every family, but that should not have to change the relationship within the family. Family should stick together no matter what. Family is not about how far away people are from each other or about how you don’t get along with a person. Family is about staying connected with each other. True family is about being there for each other, not leaving anyone behind.
