Around 2013, I moved from Minnesota to FL and I have been missing something ever since I moved here. I am talking about something that makes me smile when I go back to the fond memories they have gave me during holidays, birthdays. Even the day I graduated college, which is something that I can never forget. If you do not know what I am talking about, well, I am talking about my family back home.

My family back home has shown me a love that I cannot get anywhere. A love that is so rare to find. From the birthday parties to the holidays, they sure have made all my memories memorable. In a Spanish party, you will always have alcohol. It can be Lupe’s 3 year old daughter’s birthday party, I can assure you that there are going to some bottle around. That is what makes a party wonderful because it eases people and allows them to easily be themselves. When my family would have some Gray Goose or Bacardi in their system they would do Karaoke, and it was something so jocular. Sometimes, they would not know the words to a song and would get creative but would fail horribly. It was all fun, after the karaoke, they would dance the night away with full of joy and laughs.

Ever since my mother has moved here, I notice she is not who she was during those family parties when I was in Minnesota. I have so many videos of her laughing, dancing, and clapping while she has a smile that seems impossible to take away from her face. She was like this without any drinks in her system; she was just naturally high off of life. She would get all the people sitting on a chair and looking at their phone to get up off their feet and dance the night away. She would often be surrounded around family because she would tell jokes that were as funny as Kevin Hart.

I miss my oldest nephew and two nieces. I have a relationship with them that I notice many uncles and aunts my age do not have with their own nieces and nephews. I miss making my niece doing the exorcist spider walk and coming towards me. I miss being goofy with them without a single care in the world. I miss playing fighting with my youngest niece, who is the most energetic niece that I have (she got hands). My oldest nephew, I miss hanging out with him during the parties and etc. Going to eat with him at the closest McDonalds and listening to some music while we talk about life and girls. Sometimes when he would sleepover we would watch a movie together and make fun of the people acting in the movie. One time, there was a guy in a movie I cannot recall at this moment what movie it was but we looked at each other and said, “How did this ugly dude get this part? If I was in the movie, I’d ask how did you get to here?”

Just thinking about it now, the memories that are priceless and I would not trade it for anything in this world. Spending the holidays, birthday, or just kicking with my family has shown me that family is all we got in this world. Everything else can pretty much go dive head first from the top of a skyscraper.