My inspiration for this article came when my grandma and I were on a phone call and I asked her for some advice on what I should write this week. She suggested that I write about my experience in our family because we are multi-generational and still genuinely really close. I realized how helpful this could be to anyone who wants to be closer to members of their family, so here is my personal experience in family dynamics.
The most important lesson I’ve learned as I’ve gotten older is that every relationship takes effort; you have to care about how the person feels in order to make your bond strong. For example, my grandparents are really important to me, and I care so much about how they feel and what is going on in their lives. This makes it really easy for me to ask about how they are doing and want to check up randomly. I feel that mutual care for each other’s feelings and lives is so important in strengthening our relationships.
Secondly, people are so unique in feelings, personalities and attitudes, and these special elements change the way we see things and communicate with each other. This means it is extra important to keep lines of communication open so that you can both have someone to go to and trust between you. Not only for the sake of having a support system, but also to have context in others’ lives.
One of my favorite things about being close with my grandparents is hearing about the life experiences that they’ve had. A really cool part about knowing each other beyond pleasantries is that I feel we can talk about things we both find interesting. I’ve recently loved hearing stories of their careers and college years because the anecdotes are all really interesting and help me through this stage of my life.
Relationships in general are your choice, nothing is set for you in terms of who you spend time with. This has shown me how incredibly important it is to show the people I care about that I love them through spending quality time together. Along with that, the smallest things that show they’re thinking of me really mean so much, and I know how much they appreciate knowing that I am thinking about them too.
Take it from me, a phone call from a family member can make your difficult day turn into one of the best. The relationships that I have with my family members are so distinctive, personal and all really different. The one thing that they have in common is that they are some of the most influential relationships I have.