MY CORE

It is rare to find families who spend as much time with each other as mine does. It’s quite uncommon to find a family that enjoys that fact. And it is almost impossible to find a family that prefers it that way. If the love of a family is life’s greatest blessing- the friendship of a family is life’s way of making sure you have fun and cousins are your tour guides. When your best friends are your cousins and your cousins are your best friends life is at its best.

Your soccer games always have fans and your home runs always get shagged, Your never alone in a new pastime, you have backup whenever you need it. Holidays are hilarious and trips are hysterical. It’s never the ride at Disneyland that you remember but the conversations you had while waiting in line.

Beyond the obvious advantages of companionship and fun there is also a beyond description. Different from a brother and deeper than a friend, the relationship with a cousin is spectacular and unlike any other. They are my core.

Friday night sleepovers and Saturday morning donuts have since turned into short weekend visits and long nights of texts. Change has come upon us but not without growth. It wasn’t until we each individually left that the bond was really exposed. Many relationships are tested when distance is involved but not this one. There was never a test. Never was there any doubt that our friendships would reign supreme. There was never a question of whether or not we would remain close. What we didn’t realize is how amazing summers would become. (Singing Sweet Home Alabama all summer long)

All my cousins are fabulous but a few, because of consequential reasons have my heart. Now, in progressing fashion three are gone and the ones left behind are never the less lonely without them. As one headed to Alabama and one left the dorms for the real world of Los Angeles, the sister in me worried and wondered but the pride was overwhelming and reassuring that they are probably both much more capable of what their future holds than maybe I am of mine. Never was there reason to wonder, they are amazing and brilliant and following their dreams in every sense of the idea. The ones left behind are probably the strongest of them all. The oldest has at one time or another been a coach of each of us. That concept alone is utterly amazing. He has taken time out of his life to not only teach us how to kick a ball but how to do it with passion and hard work – lessons that has never been lost. It is the baby of the group that I know I will NEVER worry about. Although he may need help picking out a shirt- he has the spirit of a champion and the drive of his cousin (that’d be me) He’s out to prove ‘em wrong and there is no doubt in my mind he’ll leave him in his dust. (No brotherly pun intended)

Cousins are fun. Mine are amazing.