by Amanda Blank

Created on: September 26, 2009   Last Updated: September 27, 2009

Love, respect, empathy these are things that have always been a part of our family. It was the distance between us that brought appreciation and gratitude into the picture, bringing with them a sense of closeness and the need to constantly remain in touch.

There was a time when the whole family lived within 45 minutes of one another and visits to the house in the center of everyone (which happened to be the grandparent's) were frequent. There was never hostility or fighting but visits with one another always revolved around a similar routine of dinner, holidays, school sporting events or the very rare everyone just happened to mutually stop by to say hello trip. It was always nice to see everyone, but at the end of the day there was no wondering when the next time we'd see each other would be. We never imagined that there would ever be 6 months to a year before our next hello.

Illinois was always my home. Soon after, however, Georgia became my home while Florida became that of my uncles and one grandfather, California became that of my mom and stepdad and Illinois remained home to my remaining grandparents, dad, stepmom and brother. The rest of my family floated somewhere in or between the states of Michigan and Minnesota.

Easy is not in our vocabulary, but the difficulty in keeping in touch, making sure we talk often and forgiving those who accidently forget to write a birthday on the calendar makes our family stronger than ever. We appreciate the times we get to talk or the rare occasions that we all get to have dinner together or visit a school sporting event of someone living far away. We never take time together for granted and the chances we get to see one another couldn't be more exciting.

Our family was never one to fight much, to ignore one another for days on end or to secretly hate one another. We did, however, ignore the moments that should mean the most and now that we live far away every moment together is special. I'll soon be on my way to South Korea for a year, my parents recently received orders to England where my stepdad and mom will live for at least 3 years and my brother joined the Army, so who knows where he'll end up. Although it's hard to be so far from one another, the distance will only bring us closer and the next time we see one another will be one of the best.

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