All In The Family

This weekend I attended a mini family reunion. Believe it or not, I hadn't seen (or talked to for that matter) my uncle and cousins in over 10 years. Just one of those funny family things that happens I guess. How that much time can go by without seeing family seemed normal to me before this weekend - I didn't really know any differently - but after spending some time getting to know each other again, catching up, laughing, and reminiscing on old times, I felt like I had discovered a new part of me.

It got me to thinking about family. "You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family..." What is it about family (I'm talking extended here, not the people who actually raised you) that brings about the good, bad, and the ugly? Why is it that just by the very nature of someone being related through a bloodline to you, it changes the very nature of your relationship with him/her for better or for worse?

Yesterday, I had a somewhat nostalgic moment. I was en route to the doctor and stopped to get a slice of pizza on GW's campus. There I was enjoying my lunch outside, sitting directly across from a GW dorm. The very one, in fact, where my mother spent her freshman year almost 50 years ago. It was nostalgic not because I experienced any time in that dorm, but because one of my family members did and I felt that connection. I was trying to imagine what college was like when she was there. Yesterday, students in shorts and tank tops were packing up boxes and hauling their rooms away in rented vans. When my mom was in school, they had to wear skirts and had curfews. The dorm was all girls.

All of this family reflection got me to thinking about how I could connect/ reconnect with others in my family line. Like all great ideas, mine wound up on Facebook. :) I've created a group for my maiden last name. I've noticed that there are about 20 people on Facebook with the same name (it's quite unusual so I've always thought that anyone else with it must be related to each other). I'm trying a little experiment to see if we can all connect and share stories over Facebook, and maybe even determine if we are all related. These people come from all over the world and share something important to my family - our name.

I'll keep you posted!

PS - as an update to the previous post - I haven't joined the work page yet.