What matters to me? Lots of things; food, global warming, war and those sorts of things. But what matters more to me than those things is family.
My family and friends matter to me more than anything else (yes even food). In today’s world, families are frequently split up by a divorce, drugs, alcohol and other similar things. My family is intact but it could have been different. I am lucky for that reason. You need someone to be there for you when you are down and that is what they are there for. They love you and care for you and you do the same in return. That is very important. Families teach you about your past. Family is what matters in today’s society.
In today’s world, divorces are at an all time high. Drug and alcohol abuse is also high. People are working harder and longer. All of those things contribute to the breakdown in families. If our families are so easily broken down for so many people, the lucky people, whose families are intact, should treasure their families. They should not take these things for granted. We need someone to love us and sometimes those unfortunate people do not have that love.
When things are not good in your life, you need somebody to help you, a shoulder to cry on. Family, loved ones, are the first people you turn to and most of the time, they will be there for you. In today’s society, there is more chance of something bad happening which means that you will need some help in your life, at least once. I have. My family and friends were there for me when I needed them the most. They showed me love and care and that is what I needed.
Psychiatrists believe that we have ‘needs’ to be met. One of the needs is love. Families give you that love. They help you meet that need. Without that, our lives would be empty. Love works in both ways and that is what is needed. We need to know that there is someone to go home to or to phone. Someone who cares about you, who will listen to you waffle on about your problems. Granted this can get annoying, but you would want them to listen to you when you need them to. That is why family is important.
In our rapidly changing world, small pieces of our history are being lost every day. Our families, more specifically our grandparents, can teach us about our pasts. They can teach us skills that are now done by computers and they can tell us about our history. Information we would not find in text books. Stories of how it used to be. If we took recent history as just what is in textbooks we would have no real idea of what went on; how things were done. Our grandparents had to do everything by hand. What they did then is now being done by machines. Those skills will soon be forgotten. We need them to teach us so these great skills will not be lost. Family matters in today’s society. We also need them to play us the good old music from the seventies and eighties.
This is why I think family is important. They are there for you when you need them, they are someone to love and care for us and they teach us of our past. I really treasure my family and I hope that others do as well. Family is what matters in today’s society.
This article, by Robert Barrie of Thomas Reddall High School, was the Year 7/8 Runner-up in What Matters? 2007—a writing competition, run by The Whitlam Institute, that gives year 5-12 students in NSW and ACT a chance to say what matters in society today. For more information go to: http://www.whitlam.org/whitlam/index.php
