As a second generation immigrant, I am not very close with my extended family. While we are still residing within Asia, we do not visit the extended family often due to financial constrains. Hence, when I moved back to Hong Kong to pursue my higher education, I had to learn how to connect with my extended family.
I know I sound like a heartless bitch, but sometimes I wished I studied in a place without my extended family. Don't get me wrong; my extended family are caring and loving people in their own way. Yet, the time and effort needed to connect with them is wearing me out more than my school work. Looking on the bright side, this example of an extended family prompted me to vowed to myself that I will never allow my relationship with my brothers to be reduced to this.
To people who have close and positive relationships with their extended families, I do envy you. For no matter how much I connect with my extended family now, I know that all these effort will be for naught when I move back home after graduation. Honestly, I foresee that our generation (as in my cousins and I) will become strangers when our older generation is no longer with us.