Family

Swordsmanship was something I always wanted to do. It was a marriage of the geek and agggression in me. I would gladly have suffered fools to learn it well.

Yet, I suffered no fools. What I found was family, filling a void in me that I never thought I had.

You don't pick family. So it was with my fellow swordsmen. In my mind, I begin to see my fellow swordsmen take on roles. The strong father. The doting mother. The adventurous eldest brother, always up to some new fascinating activity. The uncle always there for you when you couldn't go to your parents. The spoilt kid sister everyone just loved. The loner middle brother, up to his own antics but somehow never far. The elder sister/mini-mother. The ah-beng cousin.

They are family. I don't know how it happened but they are. You don't choose family, after all.

You only choose what they mean to you.