The family you choose

I realized recently

That there’s the family you don’t have a choice in -

Your biological parents, siblings, cousins -

And then there’s the family you do.

The family you share no blood with

But choose anyway.

The family you create from the openness of your own heart

As they accept you into theirs

And you are kin.

I realized recently

That I found my people

But only after half of them have graduated

Leaving us all in the dust.

I realized through the hugs and I miss yous 

That this is my chosen family.

Crazy, annoying.

We fight but we fight because we love.

The way we are always there for each other.

I knew I’d found sisters before, and brothers too.

I didn’t realize until after they’d left

That the other half of the friend group

Also became family to me

Within the span of a year.

We snapped together like magnets,

And I’m going to miss them.

They’re not like family to me.

They simply are.