The night before my brother’s twentieth birthday, our dad pulled out the old home movies. And there are always two moments that my family loves the most. One: on my forth Christmas, I didn’t get what I wanted, so I was grumpy and Dad was pestering me with the camera, and I marched up to him and hit it. The camera turned off right after that.
And two: Daniel’s first day of school. My mom said that she was worried that she was going to start crying as she started filming, but I didn’t give her the chance, because Iwas such an emotional wreck. I clung to my mom’s leg, wailed about how I was losing my best friend forever, and gave Daniel about four or five goodbye kisses. And sure, it’s adorable to look back on, but I was a mess.
And the funny (or sad) thing is I haven’t changed. A couple weeks ago, I went to Santa Barbara to visit my good friend Kelsey for her birthday and before I left, I met up with Daniel (since he goes to UCSB too). We went out to dinner, just the two of us, and after we said goodbye and I was watching him walk back to his dorm, I just started bawling. There I was, sitting in my car, risking another parking ticket, watching my brother get smaller and smaller, and crying like I was four years old again.
It’s funny. After fifteen years, I still cry when my brother goes off to school. But I suppose that’s because after fifteen years, we’re still best friends.
