Belated.
Just got around to uploading my (very few) photos from my cousin Emily's graduation party last weekend. The button on my camera's broken, which makes me even worse than usual at documenting family events.
Anyway, here are a couple.
Here's part of the traditional "graduation shrine." The best part of this is where you can see the tiara sitting on top of a lacrosse helmet. Emily earned TWELVE varsity letters, including I think three in boys' lacrosse, and was also voted Homecoming Queen. She is quite a girl.
You can also see part of our traditional family/cousins clique, where we plant ourselves at a table all night for eating and joking, and never mingle with the other party guests. But when you have the worlds' best brothers and cousins, you don't need to make new friends.
Martin, in the gray shirt, is Andy's best friend of 15 years and my original unofficially-adopted brother. He skipped his own cousin's graduation party to come to this one, and on our way home, said that he'd rather have all of us come celebrate his 21st birthday than his real family. Cam, in the yellow, is Andy's college roommate, and the most recent unofficially-adopted brother. This was his initiation into the WHOLE family, and he said it was the best family party he'd ever been to.
Things like that make me realize no, it's not just that I'm biased. Our family really is the best.
It also reminds me of a part I read in Frankenstein recently. (Somehow, I escaped all my years of schooling without ever being assigned to read it!) Anyway, if you have read the book, please ignore the context of this/what happens later, and just take the excerpts at face value. Thank you.
Frankenstein is talking about the girl who his family raised as his cousin/sister: Everyone loved Elizabeth. The passionate and most reverential attachment with which all regarded her became, while I shared it, my pride and my delight.
And then: When I mingled with other families, I distinctly discerned how peculiarly fortunate my lot was, and gratitude assisted the development of filial love.
This is so true; the more other people love my family, the prouder I am of them, and the more I love them too. Awwww. Sorry for getting all sappy again.
Anyway, here are a couple.
Here's part of the traditional "graduation shrine." The best part of this is where you can see the tiara sitting on top of a lacrosse helmet. Emily earned TWELVE varsity letters, including I think three in boys' lacrosse, and was also voted Homecoming Queen. She is quite a girl.
You can also see part of our traditional family/cousins clique, where we plant ourselves at a table all night for eating and joking, and never mingle with the other party guests. But when you have the worlds' best brothers and cousins, you don't need to make new friends.
Martin, in the gray shirt, is Andy's best friend of 15 years and my original unofficially-adopted brother. He skipped his own cousin's graduation party to come to this one, and on our way home, said that he'd rather have all of us come celebrate his 21st birthday than his real family. Cam, in the yellow, is Andy's college roommate, and the most recent unofficially-adopted brother. This was his initiation into the WHOLE family, and he said it was the best family party he'd ever been to.
Things like that make me realize no, it's not just that I'm biased. Our family really is the best.
It also reminds me of a part I read in Frankenstein recently. (Somehow, I escaped all my years of schooling without ever being assigned to read it!) Anyway, if you have read the book, please ignore the context of this/what happens later, and just take the excerpts at face value. Thank you.
Frankenstein is talking about the girl who his family raised as his cousin/sister: Everyone loved Elizabeth. The passionate and most reverential attachment with which all regarded her became, while I shared it, my pride and my delight.
And then: When I mingled with other families, I distinctly discerned how peculiarly fortunate my lot was, and gratitude assisted the development of filial love.
This is so true; the more other people love my family, the prouder I am of them, and the more I love them too. Awwww. Sorry for getting all sappy again.