A Graduate
Meet my little cousin, Bryan.
He’s the baby of the family. I use the terms “little” and “baby” loosely as this kid is like 6’5” and has to wear at least a size 13 shoe. He graduated high school this week. I’ve been looking at the graduation announcement with his Senior picture on my refrigerator in amazement the last few weeks.
Bryan and I are not particularly close. How could we be? There is a big age gap between the two of us. I am nearly 14 years older than he is and was preparing to go to high school when he was born. I was the first grandchild. He was the ninth. We are the bookends of our generation, just as our mothers were before us.
That’s me on the top row, far right at age 19. I was a sophomore in college. Bryan is the little boy on the floor in the center. He had to be about 5. Yes, we’re wearing matching outfits. Greyson says we look like a cult family in this picture. I keep it up in the house. It makes me smile.
For me, Bryan has always been a marker of time.
I watched him as a baby through teenage eyes, thinking he was cute, but little else. I rarely thought of anyone but myself as a college student and young adult, so his childhood comes to me in flashes of Christmas presents and brief memories of a little boy playing backyard football. When he was a kid, he always made me laugh because I could tell he could care less about talking to me about anything. He would say things like, “Is Greyson here?” I would laugh and point to Greyson. They could talk sports. I always asked him about dorky stuff like school.
He was always a good kid. As far as I know he never told anyone about the time I was hammered drunk at another cousin’s wedding. In my stupor I offered Bryan, who was 11 or 12-years-old at the time, a sip of champagne. He turned it down. Like I said, he’s a good kid.
The summer after I graduated high school seems like so long ago. I’m not equipped to give advice. Besides, I wouldn’t want him to take advice from me. I think the journey has changed. It will certainly be different for him than it was for the rest of us. Our little cousin has a scholarship to play Division I baseball. Greyson has been watching the College World Series preliminary games all weekend. These guys look like young men, not like my little cousin. It’s amazing to me that next year he will be on the field with them. I speak for the rest of the family when I say we couldn’t be prouder.
I’m not sure he will ever understand what it means for our family to see him graduate and leave home. He is the last, and he has done well.
Congratulations Bryan! I wish you all the joy in the world as you head out into the world. We can’t wait to see what you become.
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Love this and you are right..the journey has definitely changed!
Thanks! Glad to know I’m not off base. I just don’t feel like advice to a high school graduate is my place.
You’re lucky it was white shirts for the photo–my cousins & I were photographed in blue turtlenecks. It was the 80s.
I’m also pretty close with my cousins who are 14 or so years younger than I am, but that may be because I’m closer with their mom than my other aunts and uncles.
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