Brothers

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... no, that's not right. 

Once upon a time... no, that's not right either. 

Chapter one- I was born... I give up. 

Before I started this blog I lived in Florida.  Before that I lived in California.  I think it is time that I revisited the before. 

When I was in High School my two best friends in the world were my brother Daniel and my cousin Nick.  The three of us were frequently in the same classes and usually were inseparable.  I don't know if we were united because we were social outcasts, or merely because we had the common background of family.  Or maybe it was because unlike so many of our fellow students, we had not always been in Saint Michael's.  Nick was in a traditional Catholic school until High School, Danny had spent most of his primary school years at a school designed for highly intelligent Dyslexic children.  I was the social pariah because I had been in public school for six years.  Either which way, the three of us had lots of fun and somehow became rather popular because we were so close.  My Mother used to describe the three of us as having a relationship that everyone wished they had. 

We were simply "cousins" in our mind but to everyone else we became "the cousins."  After a year or two we started adopting "cousins" into our circle.  First there was a boy named Ryan who was older than Nick but younger than Danny.  Then there were two brothers named Kyle and Jon- Kyle was just older than me and Jon two years younger. 

I suspect one of the reasons we were so close was because we spent hours together every day, in the classroom as well as in the car. In the classroom we would pull pranks frequently- I can recall one particular April Fools Day joke where we convinced the entire class to come in with fifteen page, double spaced, essays written on the topic of "God in Our Lives", which allegedly was worth half of our grade.

If anyone picked on one of us (usually me) they had to deal with all of us.  One boy in our school (who never really understood us) decided it would be funny to try and intimidate me during a debate class.  He stood well over a foot taller than me (and I suppose I should have been afraid) but all he really managed to do was make me angry.  He was later cornered by my brothers and promised that if he ever tried that again... well- there was never an "again" to worry about after that day. 

After we graduated, my two youngest brothers, John-Paul and Robert, and my sister, and Nick's younger sisters and brothers, continued the cool factor of  "the cousins."  I frequently look back and think of the last golden summer before most of my brothers graduated and we went our different ways.  In my mind I call it "the last golden summer" because everything was perfect then.  Of course no guy ever dared to date the girl with eight brothers, but other than that my life was perfect.  Inseparable and happy. And then everything changed. Danny left for Florida, Nick left for Northern California, Ryan went to Phoenix and we haven't been back together since. Whenever my mind travels back to life before college, I always think of them. Every guy I ever date has to be approved by them and every friend I ever make will have to measure up to them.  When I moved here to Texas, for the first time I was a lone entity, and not known by who I was related to.  This has proven to be a good thing as well as a bad thing because I no longer have to worry about standing out from them.  On the other hand, at days end, I don't have them to regroup with.  I don't have the awesome feeling that I could fight any battle with a small army behind me.  If I could change one thing about Texas, it would be to have them here with me. 

Maybe it is weird, that a girl is friends with her brothers, but maybe it is actually how God intended.  I don't understand this vindictive sibling rivalry that seems to be popular these days.  All I know is what I grew up with- all my brothers and my one lone sister, my best friends.