November: the family album

I’ve been wondering lately, who is my family? Do I have more than one? A family dinner usually consists of my mama, brother, my partner, my brother’s flat-mate and his girlfriend, so I think that at the moment this must be my immediate family. Ok, so we’re not all blood related but we do share a lot of space, food and arguments together.

But the more I think about it, the more it seems that I have been part of many families and continue to share different degrees of love, intimacy and intensity with certain groups of people in my life. At work, I joke that two of my co-workers are my big brother and sister – but to some extent this is perhaps true. We are in close contact for several days a week and rely on each other to be productive, problem solve and have an enjoyable experience for all the hours we spend amidst books and the general public. Oh, and I was the last ‘sibling’ to come along.

So, when I flip through the dusty pages of photo albums or click through picture files it reveals all my families at various points in my life – groups of friends, my university colleagues, neighbours, co-workers…… And when I look at these photographs that document these relationships I always experience a sense of emotional recollection and feel their presence or significance again, sometimes it’s good and other times a little painful. But even when some of these relationships have faded, the family album – all those ‘happy snaps’ – is a monument to their place in my memory and identity.

November on our blog is all about revisiting the family album, looking at all the families we are given and the ones we choose.