High school is a memorable time in our lives as we advance academically and participate in our various activities. It is frequently remembered as a very busy and often hectic period in our lives, but coming to a close in my high school career, I look back at it and see that those past four years were years of growth and learning both of educational value and personal development. There are many ups and downs as we each learn from our experiences, including our mistakes and achievements. So, as high school comes to a close and I look ahead to what is next, I reflect on the many moments that have shaped me to be who I am today and who has helped me to get here.
I have a large family. Each holiday we all gather together and fill my grandparents’ house. It gets quite crowded but we have never really known anything else. All the adults sit around and talk, catching up with one another and telling stories. The cousins play games and catch up on our lives as well. When we were younger, we would all play together and make up fun games. Today, we are all so similar yet so different than we were then. Most of “the cousins” are now in college, or beyond, with the remaining few of us still in high school following close behind. As I approach the end of my senior year in high school I feel as if I can relate more and more to my cousins that have already experienced what I am just starting to encounter now. They are able to give me advice and tell me of their experiences in college and the process it took for them to get to where they are now as well.
As I think about all of this and push through the stresses that are often present in making college decisions, I often stop and reflect on the relationships I have with my cousins and how no matter how far apart we are and how little we see each other sometimes, each time we come together again it is like we see each other everyday. The connections that we have are strong. This is true for all of “the cousins”; however, among us all, four of us have sort of formed our own sisterhood that has helped to keep us close and together throughout our high school and college years. The four of us girls are close in age, a span of 5 years. We were all raised like sisters as we did basically everything together from the time we were born. It began with Alyssa and Lydia. Alyssa is my older sister; she came first followed by my cousin Lydia. They were inseparable. A year after Lydia, I came along followed five months later by my cousin Becky. We were also inseparable, often called “the babies”. We were troublemakers, always getting into things and leaving a new mess almost everywhere we went for our moms to clean up. Now, both at the age of seventeen, we can look back at those times laughing and joking about them, with our moms laughing too.
A few years back, the four of us officially began our own sisterhood. Even being far apart at times, with Alyssa and Lydia away at college and Becky and me still being in high school, it has kept us so close and brings us back together when the time allows. As Becky said, “even though we don’t see each other as much as we used to, the bond we have is still so strong.” Each year we have our annual Cousins Christmas Party. Alyssa and Lydia come home from school and the four of us spend the evening together playing our own exclusive games, eating good food, and watching movies. We laugh and share stories, catching up with one another.
We have all been through so much together and have found that we can really hold each other up in times of distress and times of happiness. With the death of our grandfather, Bumpa, back in 2006 to the very recent death of Lydia’s father, and our uncle, just this past week, we have learned how important it is to stick together, caring for each other and being there for each other every step of the way. This semester, Alyssa is studying abroad in Ireland. It is such an exciting and happy time for her, as well as for the rest of us as we read her stories that she posts on her blog and as we hear of her thrilling encounters. However, it is also a tough time for us as we do not have the communication means to talk to her everyday. In one letter from Alyssa, she said, “Ireland has been so much fun with the different culture and style, I love it here but I miss you all a lot.” We will also prepare for the Easter holiday without her this year. However, when she returns, we will no doubt have an immediate reunion between the four of us and we can look forward now to all of the incredible stories we will have to tell one another.
Overall, the bond we have is something really exceptional and I know that none of us would trade it for anything. We are family, and family will always be there from beginning to end. As we have all said, “no matter what we go through, we will always be each others’ best friends and will stick together through both thick and thin,” and we know that this is a strong truth among us all.
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