Some of my earliest memories involve plopping down on a hard-wood chair around a circular table, and speaking of the trivial matters of kindergarten. Nearly everyday of our family's existence, we've held family dinners not as a passive every-once-in-a-while deal, but as a crucial, daily ritual. Despite hectic lives, it allows a time to genuinely discuss issues, curiosities, and successes of the daily routine.

Various studies have shown the value of family dinners: increased academic achievement, increase in the ability to process feelings and thoughts. Too often are children left to process intricacies and curiosities of life alone, without the guidance of a thoughtful and wise parent. I can't imagine how lost I would be mentally had my parents hastily prepared a TV dinner, and then ran to the offices to finish documents or relatively meaningless reports. Much of my childhood would've passed in a disorienting blur had my parents not talked with me over a hot plate of linguine pasta.

To this day, my family consolidates around a now rectangular table, over delicious food, to release anxiety and relate each other's days. I simply cannot emphasize enough the value of these meals, the value of the sharing, teasing, laughing, and occasionally even crying. Family dinner is the glue which bonds my parents and my siblings, which keeps up united and strong against daunting school days or unmanageable stress.