Cousinly Spiel
The way I see it is that our cousins are our first best friends. So I’d like to dedicate this chapter specifically to my eight beyond amazing and successful cousins. As such close family members, we grew up together. We ate spaghetti with our grandparents, we went to each other’s performances and sporting events, we have been together in unity ever since I could remember. There’s no one that can replace the significant and rewarding role of a cousin. There’s no one that can quite understand the way the family rituals are played out, how awesome our grandparents, aunts and uncles are and everything in between.
No one can replace my cousins, they mean so much to me. It makes me feel a certain type of sadness to realize how quickly we are all growing up and as good as growth and change is for each one of us, it breaks my heart to know that very rarely will we sit down for a meal around Nana’s kitchen table or going to the supermarket with Grammy. In short, I miss my cousins. Like I said, they were my first best friends. There are so many unique and special things about each one of us, and I think the world of all of you.
When you think about it, reader, you’ll come to realize that no matter how close or not close you are to your family, your cousins have always been there for you. Although I don’t see my older cousins as much as I would like to, I know that they are always there for me and that they are moving mountains in their lives, and I hope that they know that I am always there for them.
For this past Christmas, I decided that I wanted so badly to get together with my family and have one on one time with each cousin, or in small groups. Because of all of my hospitalizations and programs, I feel as though I have missed so much of their life successes and want nothing more than to catch up with each family member and just simply have a conversation with each one of them. You can’t really concentrate on just one conversation with someone with a dinner table consisting of at least ten people, so I decided to take my family members on small day trips and excursions with the intent of becoming closer to everyone.
I’ll give a brief appreciation to each cousin that I have. I’ll start with the oldest, David. He is the smartest person that I have ever met. He has a lovely little family of his own, and I’m very proud of everything that he has accomplished. Andrea is married to David, and she is not only my name buddy but an amazing mother to my little cousin Jack. Jack has a brain just like his father; smart, witty and on top of his game at only age 4. Then we have Kevin, the smiliest young adult that I know. He is an extremely successful individual and I can’t believe how quickly we’ve grown up together. His girlfriend’s name is Jenn. Jenn is an amazing photographer and has a big heart to match. Next would come Laura, who has always been more of a sister to me than a cousin; we would always play in our grandparent’s house together and draw pictures and more recently have had heart to heart conversations about life. Mark is next in the line, the youngest of my Brooks cousins. He may be the youngest, but he is also the tallest and fits right up there with his brothers and sister. He is multitalented and just like everyone else, I am very proud of Mark as well.
For my cousins on my Mom’s side, we were already introduced to Becca, so next in line would be Caroline. Caroline is my little old soul; she thinks in such a mature, abstract way, especially for being only 9 years old. She can still play as any 9 year old girl would, but can also carry on a conversation that is much more advanced than how you would expect such a young but intelligent girl to partake in. Madalyn comes next, whom we call Maddie, and we sometimes call her Mooses. She has such a picturesque smile to go right along with those big beautiful blue eyes.
Clearly then we see that my cousins are very unique, different, intelligent, talented, but above all just good people. I think very highly of each one of them, and am a strong believer in the fact that though miles may be between us at any given moment, we will never be apart, and we will always be there for one another.
