Goodbyes

I don't typically consider myself to be a sentimental person.

It isn't very often that I get emotionally attached to a physical object or place. A few of the mementos of my grandfather's (including a cuckoo cluck) would be a notable exception, but even when I do develop a fondness for an object, that fondness doesn't typically extend to any great remorse if it goes missing.

Stuff and places... they will all deteriorate and disappear in the end. A lot of them will get lost or ruined before too long anyway.

People, on the other hand, are different. I get emotionally attached to people fairly easily.

My older brother has been living about an hour and a half away for the past two and a half years as he worked towards the completion of his Master's degree. He and his wife (and within the last year and a half) his daughter have come to visit almost weekly during that entire expanse of time, but this last December he completed his formal education at long last, and just earlier today, he and his little family began their journey south to Texas, the original homeland of my sister-in-law, where they will be living for the foreseeable future. As they look forward to a twenty plus hour drive, I cannot help but look back at the last three... no... twenty years with more than a little sentimentality.

My big brother, Zach, is one of the best men God has ever given me the honor of knowing. A dedicated husband and father, a diligent worker and recent graduate with something like a 3.9 GPA in his Graduate studies after a solid 4.0 in his undergrad, Zach has actually been setting an astounding example for me long before he ever even moved out of the house. Even back years and years ago when he would lead the way into all kinds of mischief and naughtiness, he was still laying the groundwork for the kind of man I wanted to be when I grew up.

That hasn't changed since.

We don't always see eye to eye, and while I disagreements haven't ended in him picking me up and flinging me onto the couch any time in the last several years, there have still been plenty of times when we've gotten frustrated and upset with each other. However, I have to admit that the vast majority of the time, my brother's irritation with me was well deserved, and his often gently delivered reprimands have hit home more than once in a way that yet against has helped to fashion and direct the way I am trying to shape my own life.

I'm not a very sentimental person generally speaking, but right now sentimentality is turning this posts into one of the shortest I've written.

You were my first friend Zach, and you are my best. Saying goodbye to you and your little family this evening was even harder than I could have predicted. Thank you for everything that you have taught me, thank for you for setting such an amazing example of what a brother, a husband, and a father should be like. Today was a reminder that I have a lot of little brothers with whom I am still living and for whom I haven't set nearly as high a standard as you set me, and hopefully I'll take that reminder to heart.

I'm not a very sentimental person, but goodbyes still make me cry.

Love you Broski.