My family keeps me anchored. They live in Denver and I go down to see them on weekends. I remember once, coming back, my roommate said something along the lines of, "your family isn't going to be there for you forever, 8bit." It made me really mad, perhaps for no reason. I realize there's an emphasis in American culture that you need to be pushed out of the nest asap or whatever, but that's not how we roll. We have houses in Sudan that are packed end to end with family, sometimes multiple families - cousins, uncles, grandparents, etc. etc., all supporting each other and backing each other up. And even if you took culture out of the equation: my sister is my best friend, no question. We understand each other better than anyone else. Why would you assume that that's not going to last forever? I think it's the opposite. Significant others come and go, friends come and go, but for the most part, barring some significant detachment (and usually that's for a good reason), you're stuck with your family for good. You may as well stay on good terms with them. Anyways, tl;dr Boulder drives me nuts sometimes and my family keeps me anchored from a sea of hate and self-loathing and/orinsanity.
One of the last times I was with my cousins that are around my age, the elder one asked me if I would like to meet our nephew's kid. I said I would. He walked across the street from our grandmother's house and came back with a frightened looking 2 year old. Now, my family (on one side) includes a lot of bastards, but we take care of our own no matter what. Within the hour, the child's grandfather (our other cousin) had been called over, as had most of the rest of the family. Luke is now very much a part of us. I don't buy into the American idea of what family should or could be and I don't expect them to understand what family means to me. And frankly, I don't care. My family is big and messy and one day I might even be the head of it. While we might betray each other in certain ways, we very much are a family and we all work hard to maintain that, because that is the culture we've created for ourselves. I for one, am down to continue that (hopefully sans bastards on my part).