Find your 'urban family'

I have been in 19 weddings. Yes, almost like the movie, I hear it all the time. Ohio State has given me more than degrees. OSU has provided me and so many people I know with the opportunity to make lifelong friends and share my life with kindred spirits.

There are people who become so close to you that they become a kind of family. The term I use for this is urban family. It is the family you make yourself, the friends you make on purpose. Your “bros” and “gal-pals” can be more valuable than your family.

Bromance is now a legit word in the dictionary. This validates my three-year use of the word when describing male platonic friendships. I am not talking about beer pong. I am talking about the friend who picks you up from the airport at 3 a.m. and the friend who goes with you to your father’s funeral.

I regularly use the word gal-pals to talk about female friendships. Not the random girls you walked home with from a party on 15th Avenue. I am alluding to the women who have your back when you are in an abusive relationship, the women who pool their money to buy you a flight home to visit a cancer-stricken parent.

I know that I have some of the best friends a gal could ask for. I have been on some amazing road trips and can remember each movie night and hairbrush-lip-synched musical montage.

As I stood up with those 19 friends on their wedding days, I was reminded of karaoke nights and pretending to be dancing queens at the club. All of our moments bear testimony to the intimacy that is an urban family.

I was at Starbucks with a friend recently, and we decided that OSU’s architecture differs from campuses such as Notre Dame, where all the buildings look the same. We reasoned that the diversity in the buildings at OSU represents the diversity of its people.

I like that none of the buildings look the same. It shows that not only has the campus grown and changed over time, but I have too. The buildings, like my friends, are different ages, ideas and races.

It is important to have kindred spirits in this journey of life because relationships with others help you become a better person and teach you some of life’s most important lessons. We do not grow in isolation. We flourish in community.

OSU has provided the space for me to find my urban family. I hope everyone reading this is encouraged to find people who love you at your worst and who challenge and support you. Your urban family is here. Those folks are present in the halls of the buildings and out on the Oval, waiting to be in your wedding.