Nothing like Family

Blog Journal Project- Entry 6
"Nothing like Family"

Today, I attended my cousin Michael's graduation party. He is graduating next week from Woodward Academy and is most likely attending University of Miami (fingers crossed he gets off the UGA wait list soon). Being exactly a year and a month apart, we are the closest in age out of all eight cousins that I have on my dad's side. I am the third to youngest, so even though Michael and I are not babies, we are very young in the family. There are high expectations in this family as well, that's why the UGA wait list is such a big deal right now. For my final blog post for this project, I'm going to write about my cousins and our relationship.

Let's introduce the family. Rachel graduated from the Honors Program at UGA and is currently in medical school, studying to be a gynecologist. She is starting her residency next year at the University of South Florida. She just turned 26. Russell graduated from George Washington University and is currently working in New York City. He is 24. Next is Greg; he graduated from the Honors Program at UGA and is getting his master's degree there. He is 23. Leo turned 21 yesterday. He is a junior at UGA. Then, we have Michael- 18 years old and graduating! I'm next, and I turn 17 in one week! My brother, Ross, is 14 and going to the Weber School for high school. Finally, my cousin Emily is 13 and goes to St. Francis. Rachel and Greg are my dad's sister's children. Russel, Leo, Michael, and Emily are my dad's brother's kids. That is the brief intro of everyone (for when I start name dropping).

Rachel and Emily are 13 years apart. Because of the wide age ranges in my family, we are lucky if we see each other two to three times a year. The strangest part is that each family is based in Atlanta. Despite the many in and out of college, we all have extremely busy lives. I wish I could be closer to my cousins. Whenever we are together, we always get along and have a good time. The picture below is all of us at our annual "Day before Thanksgiving" dinner. As I am getting older, I can finally carry decent conversation with my cousins that are nine years older than me. Most of them took AP Lang and a variety of other AP classes, so their advice becomes very useful (especially because I aspire to go to UGA like half of them did/do). At this certain family dinner, I stood with Rachel and her boyfriend, Michael Chang (aspiring pathologist), and complained about my physics class. Rachel gave me great tips: "You don't want to be a doctor. You have no interest in science. Keep a B in physics and As in all of your other classes with your AP/Honors points, and I promise, you will be fine." Never were words so true. Family is irreplaceable, and that is a key.