First off, for all of us new, or maybe even experienced drivers... There is nothing worse than driving in precipitation... especially when it is torrential or blizzarding. I was driving home, yes I drove for all six hours, from my cousin's camper/ hotel room. Then when we got near my home city, a downpour started, and I couldn't see 10 feet in front of the car. This was nearly almost my first experience with rain, so I was clutching the steering wheel so tight that my knuckles were turning white.

For 45 min, in the pouring rain I drove through puddles that when splashed went ten feet in the air, everyone was passing me, and my dad was about ready to grab the steering wheel out of my hands. The trip back from the cousins was almost disastrous. All the way through my home state, there were cops that were actually pulling people over and they would keep sneaking up behind me, and I was afraid that I would be caught speeding before I even was licensed to drive.

Then, at a rest stop, my family went in to go to the bathroom, and when we came out, someone had backed into our car, and then just left. In the words of Stephanie Tanner, "How Rude!" Then the rain began. It was like I was experiencing the seven plagues of road trips.

When we were at my cousins, it rained all the time, so we couldn't go out in the boat. I spent my entire weekend driving and playing cards, including Frustration, NERTS, Speed, and Whist. I also spent countless hours playing 3 different types of solitaire, and my dad and I played Gin Rummy- he beat me 26 to 14 games. I didn't have a chance. Then, at the hotel that we were staying at, there was a wedding last night, so there were a lot of drunk people, and my eldest cousin spent some time with some people that he knew. As a senior, he's taking the classes that I'm taking next year. How sad.

Anyways, from my vast depths of personal experience which even YOU are not privy to, I put an idea with another and came up with a post topic, however cliche it may sound: Family. Usually, when you think of family... you think of those who are genetically very similar to you... although apes are also very genetically similar to you, so that theory doesn't exactly work.

For those scientists out there, a family is part of the biological classification system, right above species and genus names i.e. Fat, in Kings Play Cards On Fat Green Stools.
For me, who has a relatively (relatively being the key word here) normal life, I often find myself questioning who my family is. I have people who are genetically quite similar to, who I haven't probably ever spoken to, and others who are right now supposedly "cheating" me out of what is rightfully mine.

Then there are the people who I talk to regularly, and who are interested in my life, not because they have to be, but because to them, I am important. They spend more time, and care about me more than my "real" family, yet... I'm constantly told that I should put "blood" first. It's sort of like the quote, "Blood is thicker than water." Well... that may be true, but does that mean that I should feel loyalty to people that I don't approve of, and who represent and do most of the things that I don't want in my life. To these people, I'm supposed to be loyal?

Then I go to dictionary.com, and read that it is a group of people who have the same goals, and live under the same roof. That means that my sister and I are apparently not family then because we definitely do not have the same goals for our lives. Then, I go to school, and they talk about our community as being a big family, in our middle school, they even resort to calling homeroom, "small family groups."

Now, this is where it gets a little tricky. At my school, there are definitely people who have the same goals as me, and I think that some of them know me better than members of my own family. But there are also those kids, who like my only family, that I mentioned before, act and do things that I find despicable, and they take things away from me whether it is inadvertently or not. I think that using that name for homeroom is also not correct, because after that year of homeroom, those kids will rarely if ever speak to their so-called "parent" again, and the kids are definitely not a family because they don't have the same goals or even live in under the same roof.

So, what is the point of all this? I am simply trying to figure out what a family is. I guess, if you think about it, we all have the same basic goals-food everyday, safety, want to be loved, and if you consider the sky to be a roof, then we do all live under the same roof. I know, I know, how pathetic does that sound?

But as I think about it, a family is a group of people who are connected in some way. This way may be that they hate each other, or they all like Star Trek, but nevertheless, they are a family. You may hate some of the people in your family, just ask some of the kids in my grade, but they are still your family. You may not know them very well, but they are still your family. Yes, even us poor speechies can be considered a family, as loose-knit as we may be. In the words of my English teacher, we are all part of a big sea of stories, that is very similar to a weaving pattern. We are all interconnected, and one is not possible without the other.

As sad as that may sound, without our worst enemy, we wouldn't have the characteristics that make us who we are. Final Question: Who would you consider to be a member of your family? BL. NP.