A Special Guest Post from My Brother

 Holy frig, dudes.

My sister is getting married. I’m sure this tense is awfully confusing to you, but you have to realize, I’m writing this on Tuesday before the wedding, and the fact is, she’s not married yet. But when you read this, she’ll be married.

I can’t tell you how many times my friends have heard me utter the above phrase. I know this is the biggest moment in my sister’s life to date, but it’s a pretty big one in this kid’s, too. I mean. She’s my only sister. And I couldn’t be happier. Pat is one of the best people I’ve ever met in my life and God help him he has the patience to put up with my sister. Let me tell you, folks. That is strength. I jest. Ish.

I’m not here to rag on my sister, though: or to extol the virtues of her amazing now-at-the-time-you’re reading-this husband. I’m here to write a guest post. And I thought about writing about my sister and how she is one of the most wonderful, vaguely insane, hilarious and caring people I know, or writing about Pat and how he is steadfast, loyal, open and friendly, extremely aware and caring. But honestly, mush isn’t really my forte, and pretty much every blog post from my sister in the past 3 months has made me start crying at my desk quietly, so I think I’ll avoid that route.

 Pause: My sister just texted me from the airplane: she’s flying home.

And I’m crying again.

Sorry dudes, I’m the worst narrator ever. But hopefully the journey is enjoyable.

My sister is older than me, but it hasn’t felt like it was an older sibling-younger sibling relationship to me since I was really young. Obviously we began like most siblings do. We’re 5 years apart most parts of the year, and that’s an awkward stretch when you’re growing up. While Jacin was doing the awkward middle school thing I was beginning to establish basic social skills, and very interested in making her life an insufferable hell. [Note to 6 year old Todd: Middle School pretty much has that front covered. Back off.] While I was in middle school, Jacin was figuring out Colleges, figuring out who she was in the world, and on a mad dash to independence, becoming her own person, and meeting Pat. Also making a firm stand against the bullies in my middle school and doing her best to protect me from its insufferable hell.

We grew up with a fairly standard sibling relationship filled with fighting and wonderful nostalgia filled moments of love and bliss. My sister played a significant part in establishing my person as I am now. And yes, she sometimes still treats me like I’m 12, but I know it’s because she loves me. As we grew we developed a closeness past the fights, and now, though we live on opposite sides of the country and don’t call each other all that often, we’re incredibly close. It’s kind’ve amazing to look back at the petty fights of childhood and to now consider how excited I get whenever we’re going to be in the same place at the same time.

My sister introduced me to my first live concert. She is responsible for my extensive tastes in music. She is the sole reason I can identify Pink Floyd, and definitely the only reason I know all the lyrics to The Boy Is Mine [a song she without mercy played every morning before school for a period of months.] She taught me that you never tell someone you hate them unless you absolutely mean it. She broadened my imagination and helped me to realize the importance of storytelling. She over and over again reinforced in me the end-all be-all importance of loyalty and family. It always amazes me how she is so aware and conscientious of things my mind doesn’t even notice. She taught me about bravery. Honesty. Setting goals and come-what-may achieving them. About living life for the ultimate amount of happiness. About living life without regrets. And now she’s taking a step in ensuring she does just that for herself.

Gorram it. I wasn’t going to write one of those posts. A frigging text message and everything changes.

But I guess I can’t not, really. My sister is an important part of my life. And I think part of the reason I keep crying is because I’m so gorram happy for her and Pat. She’s a wonderful person, and so is Pat. And I am just so utterly happy that I get to have them both in my life. And that they’re both going to spend the rest of their lives together. That makes me genuinely happy. Because my sister deserves nothing less than a long-lasting, happiness. And I’ve seen these two kids together an awful lot, in all kinds of situations, and I know without any doubt in my heart, that what they are in store in the life they are beginning together is happiness. Obviously there will be tons of hard stuff to deal with, I’m vaguely aware of how life works. But I know they’re both incredibly strong people, that they’re in this for and with each other, and that their love is large, and steadfast. And I really just can’t wait for them to have that chance to build this with each other. I don’t hope they’ll be successful. I know it.

Love you Jacin, and Pat. Congratulations on your marriage. I look forward to being able to share in the life you build as a brother.

Cheers.
Todd