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Long time, no post! Life has been a little busy, to say the least. We’ve had a lot of (wonderful) stuff going on with my family, not to mention the fact that Pablo and I both got promotions. (Yay!) I’m hoping to get back in the swing of things soon. :)
Last night, my sister’s high school team won their conference championship. I’m so proud of her! She played an awesome game and their team definitely deserved the win. (I might be a little biased…) What makes this win even better is that I won the same exact title when I was her same exact age. I think it’s a new family tradition.
Her win made me realize that wow… it has been 8 years since I won that title. 8 years! It seems like it was just yesterday, but nope – it was 8 YEARS ago! I’m awestruck by how much I’ve accomplished and the person I’ve become in that time.
I graduated from one of the top 5 high schools in the nation with honors.
I fulfilled my life dream of being a Florida Gator and graduated with honors while experiencing 3 championships during my time there.
And probably the best and most unexpected thing of all happened – I met the love of my life.
When I sit and think about how different my life is and how many things I did in those 8 years, I get even more excited for the future. What will the next 8 years hold? Where will I travel? What will I accomplish? Who will I meet? The truth is that I have no idea what lies ahead of me, but I can’t wait to find out.
My mom and I are very close. We share nearly everything with each other and have in depth conversations regularly. She told me that at a recent family gathering, she looked around and was awestruck by the conglomeration of people we had in our home. To rattle a few descriptors off, we had a doctor, an infant, an ex-con, a college student, a person with MS, people who had overcome serious addictions, someone who works at a church, an executive, a stay-at-home mom, an athlete, and a person in law school, among others. Sounds like a bad joke, doesn’t it? But it was beautiful! These are some of the people I consider to be my family, and out of all of them, I’m only biologically related to 7.
I’ve mentioned my grandmother before on this blog. The truth of the matter is that when she passed away, we lost our family. Being raised to believe family is of utmost importance, this was a huge blow. But over the past few years, I’ve come to understand that family isn’t just who you’re related to. It’s so much more than that.
This whole concept first sunk in for me when my little brother became part of our family. He was a friend of my youngest sister who lived with us for several months, spending his birthday and Christmas with our family, before he made the trek out to California to live with people he was related to biologically. I don’t think I fully realized until he left that he was family, but the tears we all shed and the aching we all felt in our hearts when he left made it obvious that he was one of us.
Since his move, we’ve met even more people who have grown to become part of our clan. I have people who I would tell you are like aunts and uncles – they even gave me birthday presents! I’m well on my way to having an older brother, which is something I’ve wanted my entire life. He’s even given my youngest sister a wet willy, for which he earns some mad props. From the grandparents I adopted when I wasn’t even 10 years old to the relatives we’ve adopted most recently, I’m so blessed to have such wonderful people to call family.
