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 you

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.

QueenBee

VT

13 years old

More by QueenBee

  • I think

    I think you make me really happy

    I think it’s sort of all-consuming

    I think I want to be with you every second

    Of every day

    I think maybe what keeps me up at night

    Is replaying you

    Replaying us

  • Together

    You’re different

    With all of us

    Versus just me.

    You’re different

    With a whole crazy friend group

    Than you are when it’s us chilling in your basement watching Stranger Things 

  • People

    People want things from me

    This incredible group of people

    They want me to mediate

    To laugh

    To help them with x, y, and z

    They want me to come with them

    Pulling me in different directions constantly