My brothers: they tease me & frankly they're just gross, but ultimately they're my go-to guys in this world.
They're the guys I call when I need boy advice. They're the ones I confide in when I face academic decisions. They're the ones who share knowing my parents and the way of life that we have always known.
We grew up traveling together--stuck in the car with one another for hours on end only wishing we were already at our destination because we just couldn't stand one another.
If I could have any amount of hours back with them, I would.
These days, our time together is precious. And, I don't know if either of them understand how much I treasure our time together.
I wish I saw them more. I wish we lived closer to one another. I wish we talked more.
I hope they know how much I love them.
It's these days that I'm coming to understand how quickly life passes by and how important it is to keep our relationships strong by letting others how much we care. It's those genuine give and take relationships that I treasure because frankly we couldn't get through life without other people.
I cannot fathom what life would be like if I didn't have them. I would be a totally different person.
Sure, our childhood was full of bickering and tattletaling and accumulating a multitude of ways of how we could get under one another's skin. (This usually consisted of my brothers banding together against me. But you know, who could blame them? They were closer in age and were both boys. Assimilation am I right?)
And yet, here we are twenty-one years later. Living in three different cities. Not particularly too far but no longer fifty feet apart.
Why is it that we aren't able to grasp the gifts we're given until we're all grown up and far apart?
I think the reason our minds can't grasp what we've been given as youngsters is because we're not meant to understand the ways of life until things change. Until our relationships are challenged because it's not easy anymore. Until there comes a point where you are forced to recognize that relationships take a lot of work.
The thing is that life continues to get busier. It never stops. It seems like there's never a good time for anything. Planning and practicality are required. And sometimes those don't fit.
These things make it hard for all of us to get together because we all have different schedules, different lives. But the root of family goes deep. It's instilled in who we are and where we've been.
No one shares that connection that I have with my brothers.
I wouldn't trade them for the world.