My sister’s wedding was today. It has been absolute chaos getting ready for it, and there were definitely disasters (how can they ever be avoided?), but we got through it alive. To be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to it. Last week, the highlight of me going home was the fact that I would get to take home all the extra stuff I have been trying to get rid of. I’m not big on throwing off my schedule, I’m not very family-oriented, and potential disasters (a category where weddings always seem to fit) make me nervous.
Despite this, having my whole family together celebrating was so amazing. It’s something that happens almost never, maybe the occasional funeral, but certainly not in this way. It will probably not happen again, at least not for a very long time. I also got to met a couple really amazing people in the groom’s family that I now consider my own family.
The reception went by so fast; everyone finally left, and that was that. All that planning and work, and it was over. My sister got on a plane back to Texas, where she has lived for three weeks. Her fiancé was getting ready to move down the next day. “See you at Christmas,� I said. I couldn’t believe it would be that long…but I knew that I would be so busy that it would go fast.
I packed up my things to go on my way, too. I’ll be back for about 5 days in August (after my lease ends, but before RA Training), and then probably not again until Thanksgiving. It will be then that I see any of my extended family again, and even so, it will only be some of it. My mom is, as she has been for a couple years, getting used to not having her daughters around, and my sister moving on to married life simply magnifies it all.
My room, although I didn’t live there in high school, is filled with all my high school trophies and pictures and memorabilia. It is strange to think I no longer live in this city with my mom, and that I probably never will for an extended period of time again. I will probably not see my sister very often anymore either, and when I do it will be with her husband.
These are things I have not fully appreciated during my busy college life. I have long moved on from high school, but I just didn’t think it was all moving so fast.