Today is my father’s birthday. If he were still alive, he would be 94 years old. Today is also my daughter, Jessica’s birthday. She is 33 years old today. When she arrived on my dad’s birthday, we decided to name her after him—her middle name is Nora, my dad’s name was Norman. Jessica Nora is up visiting this weekend from her home outside of Philadelphia. She brought Sidney with her, her 2 month old daughter, a beautiful little girl. The reason I mention this family stuff is because I believe that we can learn a lot from our families. The first thing we can learn is that we don’t get to choose our families or where we fall into them. We don’t get to choose to have a loving older sister or a twin who reads our thoughts before we say them. We don’t get to choose our parents, loving quirky or even mean. What we do get to choose is how we will react to our family. Seventh and eight grades are times of great transitions for students. There is a temptation for 13 year olds to consider families like dinosaurs, outdated and irrelevant. Friends suddenly seem to have all the answers even though they know no more than anybody else that age. I would like you to consider your family as a resource for you in making wise choices. They may or may not be any smarter than you in math and sciences, but they have lived a lot more years and they have learned tough life lessons that you are yet to face. Think about one last thing—families care about you. Their emotional support will help you to survive today and to face the tough choices you’ll have to make the next few years