A question of family

We are given a family when we are born, and we create families everywhere we go. Our co-worker families, our roommate families, our church families, our best friends from high school families, our best friends from college families. But the transition between families is often hard.

I had lunch with a good friend today who told me about her struggle to find a family like we had in Berkeley at her new grad school. All families are certainly not created equal, but the question is, if you make a good family once, are you setting yourself up for disappointment later? All families are so different - some you only care to see in small doses, some you hate to leave. But do you get only one shot at the ultimate family? And do you have to adjust your expectations from then on out?

I don't really think that's true, but I feel like as we get older and older, the opportunities that we have to be given families are few and far between. You have to work harder to find good people and good families. Quality over quantity, though, right? The trick now is once we have found a wonderful family, not letting time zones or distance get in the way of maintaining our relationships.