I believe family is created, not inherited

My Advanced Composition students begin their semester by writing This I Believe essays inspired by NPR.  As I introduced it this semester, I found last semester's example.  With a little tweaking and revising - and the help of my students telling me I needed an "I believe" statement - it's ready for sharing. 

This I Believe

Giving our thank you speech at our wedding was overwhelming.  Not in the “I have to get up and speak in front of three hundred people” kind of way.  Rather, in the shocking “all of these people are here for us” kind of way.

The two story venue was picked because it was one of the only places in Des Moines that could hold a guest list of our size.  I didn’t realize the feelings it would conjure as I stood there with a microphone in hand.  I pause and marvel at this visual in front of me.  

Standing next to my husband of three hours I look up and see every pair of eyes looking back at us.  Every face focusing on us.  I realize this is my family.  All three hundred of them.  I believe family is created, not inherited.

I scan the room as my thank yous flood out.  

Cory, my high school English teacher, spoke earlier as she wrote and performed the reading for our wedding ceremony.  As a teenager, I sat in her class much as my own students do now.  Almost fifteen years later, she is one of my first calls when I have good news to share.

I acknowledge Matt in my speech as the closest thing I have to an older brother.  Besides my groom, he knows me more than any other man.  He’s watched me grow from a teenager working in a coffee shop to a fellow English teacher.  Only he can blatantly call me out and get away with it.

Then, this man who stands beside me.  We were two strangers who happened upon each other.  Now, we will recreate what it means to be a family with the best of both us molded into one.

At that moment, I don’t think about who is missing.  I restrain myself from recalling the conversation with my grandma that morning saying she wouldn’t come and I couldn’t go see her on my wedding day.  I dismiss the excuse my aunt gave that “it was on a Friday.”

Instead, I take a breath.  I smile.  I look back at the faces full of love and support and know this is where I fit in the world.  These people have taken time out of their day to share a special moment in ours.  They’ve given us more than we could ever imagine: memories.