With life comes experience. Experiences unique to us that shape us into who we are; And I remember. I remember being with my brothers in a single shared bedroom. We had all gotten grounded and, out of boredom, decided to create a fun game we could play together in order to pass the time. The name of the game was “Ball Catch,” which, looking back, was not a very good or creative one. There were three basic rules to this game in order to keep it competitive and challenging. Rule number one was that, when you catch a ball, in order to get the point for catching it you aren't able to drop it. Rule number two was that you could only catch and hold the balls with your hands. The last rule, rule number three, was that there could not be any outside interference from people whose turn it wasn’t. To play, you’d first need to crumple many different pieces of paper that were different sizes and colors. Based off their size and color, catching the ball would give you a different amount of points. You then have a thrower take those balls and go to one end of the room and the catcher go to the other end and in which the game would commence after the thrower throws the first paper ball. This memory is one of my fondest memories with my brothers, along with my memories of playing Call of Duty Black Ops 2 with them and going to the park and playing basketball with them, my cousins, and my uncle. But I don't only have good memories of my brothers. I remember my eldest brother disrespecting and breaking my mother’s rule of not smoking in the house and then disrespecting me by blowing the smoke in my face after I had told him to stop. I remember the fights I had with my little brother after he annoyed me to the point of an outburst. I remember the verbal arguments that consistently happen between me and my second eldest brother. This has led to my relationships with them to sour. No matter how much I wish it could, the relationship between me and my brothers seems as if it will never go back to how it used to be, but despite that, I still love them, even if I don't tell them that.

 If there's anything I have learned through my personal relations with family and the telling of others personal relations with their families, it's that you don't have to continue to consider someone family just because they're related to you by blood. Something I recognize happened to me with my relationship with older brother for a while. I realized that your family are the people that love you and support you and always stay by your side whenever you're going through a tough time. Whether there to be a shoulder to cry on, or send you money to help with expenses when you struggle to pay for it on your own, your true family will always be there for you.

This I believe.