Ruth Institute Blog

Something a little light-hearted; plus, it makes sense!

Click here to watch this video featuring famous big family members. It cracks me up that many of these “big families” contain only three members, and that they show Mother Teresa a few frames before Madonna as though they were on equal footing, but I get their point. And I dig the song that comes with the video.

by Kamilah Thorpe

Don’t you love this video? It really puts some perspective to big families and the greatness that can come from them. Being from a large family myself, I was excited to get this post submission from a fellow oldest child. Kamilah has taken the lessons she learned in her family and has transferred those to the college scene, finding more than one similarity. Here’s what she has to day on the matter…

For me it was far more than survival. Being the eldest of six children has shaped me into a successful college student and a happy young woman. College presents many high school grads with one huge hurdle: time management. I can safely say that I would never have become good at managing my time if I had not learned from my parents, who coordinated the activities of six young children, each of whom did an average of two sports, piano lessons, and some other extra curricular club. I saw in my parents a commitment to give each child as much opportunity to socialize, exercise, and have fun as they could. On top of this, they always made time for each other.

Following their example, I am now able to see my time not only as my time, but as time for others—as a basket of goods that I need to distribute to all of my different priorities: school, family life, volunteering, friends, and exercise. I do not see my time as something I need to hoard for myself, but as a tool I can use at the service of my family, friends, and society.

So when I have essays due, I still find time to make it every week to the high school tutoring agency I volunteer at as well as run a cultural club for young teenagers. Because I want to have time for these things, I have learned to work more efficiently and plan my time better so as to be able to do both school and volunteering. If my parents had not shown me the value of giving time to others, I would never have been motivated to do this volunteer work, and I subsequently would never have learned to work on my school work intensely and efficiently.

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