“man is born to live, not to prepare for life.” – boris pasternak

i’ve lived in arizona for approximately 73.008% of my life (yes i used real fractions instead of making up a number like i usually do)
and for most of that time—no, scratch that.
for all of that 73.008% that i can remember, i lived by my family.
we had sunday dinner every sunday and i would have to go to bed early during the school year and do you know how hard it is to fall asleep when your door is cracked open and you can hear the party going on outside your room and you have to go to sleep and you can’t close your door all the way because you’re too scared so you just have to fall asleep to the sound of happiness happening without you and you wonder why your life was so hard?
yeah.
but that was how it was.
we were always within 20 minutes of my closest sibling and i always babysat for them.
but all babysitting ever really was for me was just hanging out with my friends/precious little toddlers.
i loved babysitting because i was just hanging out with family.
then we moved two streets away from one of my sisters, and that was the best thing we ever did.
this sister has the oldest grandkids, the ones that are closest to my age.
they were always over (probably more than my sister wanted) and we were always playing.
we shared secrets, played games, ate food, hung out, and just talked.
her oldest son, clatie (who has “gotten older so he goes by clate now” but i refuse to call him that because i’ll probably confuse myself and think i’m talking about his dad) is just 3 years younger than me.
he has been around for literally longer than i can remember.
he’s just always been there.
yeah when he was a toddler he was a punk.
i would know, being a mature 5-year-old and everything.
as he got older, he was still a punk.
oldest child syndrome.
but we were still the best of friends.
then he got cool and popular and everything.
but i still remember the day he called me to ask me some stuff about going on dates.
see, he had just asked a girl on his first date and wanted to do it right.
i can’t remember what i said, or if i was even helpful, and he probably regretted just a little calling me, but i was so honored that he called me.
i moved away when i was 16, and haven’t lived in arizona since.
{that sounds like i ran away. i lived in puerto rico until i went to college.}
as i’ve gone back to visit, it’s different.
we grew up apart from each other, and i missed stuff.
but we’re still family.
i wasn’t able to make it to clatie’s farewell, and i called him a couple days before.
i completely spaced when we were together at our reunion and forgot that was the last time i’d get to see him before he left, so i called him yesterday to say goodbye.
he leaves today for mexico city, then heads to philadelphia for the next 2 years.
i’m so proud of the man he’s become and of the choices he’s made.
sure i still think of him as the little kid that would grit his teeth when he pinched his baby brother even though he knew he wasn’t supposed to (pinch the baby, not grit his teeth).
but he’s going to do the most amazing things over there in philly because he is such an amazing person.
he has the most contagious laugh of anyone i’ve ever met—literally.
he cares about people and will take the time to listen to them.
he wants other people to be happy.
he’s just the cutest with his little sisters and other little children.
i’m so proud to be his aunt and to have so many random memories with this kid.
i think the card i gave him for his high school graduation sums it all up nicely.
”carl the cow and pete the pig were close from birth…to bacon cheeseburger.
so glad we’re close.”

good luck dude.
go be awesome for a couple years, then come back and keep being awesome.
you’re a stud and i love you :)

high school graduation (his, not mine…)

clate is that handsome guy on the right, not that handsome guy on my left.
{i prefer the black-and-white picture because it doesn’t give away how incredibly white i am…}

here’s a pick of this great missionary in mexico with my dad.

two of my favorite men on this planet!!
he is so excited to go start working!
so so awesome.