There are a countless number of people that you meet in a lifetime. Every day we see new faces and some of those faces just might be a part of our lives at some point. A bond is simulated through similar activities as well as differences between the people that were once just a random face to transform into the people that we cry for when they are away. Once you gain a best friend, brother, or partner it becomes inevitable to be inseparable from them, but eventually the time comes when we have to say goodbye to one another. However, it seems that saying goodbye to someone can be extremely difficult. When childhood friends become separated from becoming adults or when a mother or father leave on a business trip, and when people leave for school, or even when a big brother finally leaves the home he’s lived in for twenty-four years and faces a world that he has not seen on his own, then it is you. A different you is left at home with two sobbing parents and two more brothers as clueless as you are on how something so rewarding can be so depressing and that the only thing that we can feel at the moment is how to say goodbye.

Growing up I lived with three brothers, and me being the third, I was considered a middle child. By God’s blessing I had two older brothers. Never having to learn for myself and always looking at my older brothers to see how to act or in my case how not to act. My oldest brother taught me so many lessons about life, unfortunately, it did not always seem that he was aware of his teachings. More often than not he would give me his teachings when I was not ready for them, and even more often he taught me best when he did not say anything. I am eternally grateful for the lessons he taught me. The most important ones dealing with our soul. Brother, you taught me how to say sorry and continue loving someone when they did not deserve it, you taught me how to look after someone. But the most important thing you taught me though, was that you were my big brother and that you were going to love me for the rest of your life.

Everyone has to be a little stubborn. My family has encountered the most stubborn people through each other, and although we are being assisted, we are blinded by a fixed eye and can easily lash at a father or mother who are trying their very best to care for you.

Always remember who has cherished you more than anything in the world. A mother’s love is like no other. Their natural instinct is to be the very best they can be for you and even in the worst course of action, love you unconditionally. A father’s tendency to hold concern for our well-being and to give us a life that we can be proud of is unmatched. As children we forget and misunderstand what our parents do for us. We unlatch a mind of our own and formulate the idea that we can be our own person without any assistance and forgetting that the only reason we are who we are is because of the two most generous people in the world.

When I was born and my parents brought me home I was in a whole new environment. Yes, I was just born but for a baby the biggest realization is family. I came home with two older brothers waiting for me. A new face introduced by my mother and a new relationship would be my older brother. The same person that would show me how to apologize to those who may not deserve it, to care for those that are your responsibility, and that you are my older brother that will love me for the rest of your life. So now that he’s gone and out of my life, how do I continue? How do my parents stop crying and how do we brothers understand that we still need one more to play basketball? How do we say goodbye to a member of the family that has moved on to the next major chapter in his life? We don’t, we continue to support him and help him and say “see you later.”