Golden Boy

Shadow, my younger brother, and I have always had a bond.  He says that we look the most alike…he’s the male version of me.  We’re both very academic.  We both work in the computer field.  We both analyze things carefully.

There was a time when Shadow and I were pursuing our undergraduate degrees together.  We even had one class together..which was a blast since we look at things from different perspectives.  We could be seen walking across campus debating the conjugation of verbs of words such as “spit” (is it “spat” or “spitted”?).  *laughing*  I can still remember that debate. (cre8in, you probably remember us during that time!)

Shadow, his then girlfriend (now wife) Jennifer, and I all worked together in merchandising.  We traveled all over the state together to work in remodeling grocery stores.

It wouldn’t matter how good of a job Jennifer and I would do.  Shadow would always be singled out as someone who did an exceptional job.  It got so bad that Jennifer and I nicknamed Shadow “Golden Boy” because he could do no wrong.  Whenever someone would call him, we’d say, “Oh, Golden Boy…”  *chuckle* 

Our relationship really took a turn when my beloved Willow was born.  I can remember that day like it was last week.  I didn’t want to leave the hospital.  I wanted to hold her forever.

The first 3 months of Willow’s life, we didn’t visit much.  Shadow and Jennifer wanted to get to know their baby.  After that, though, I saw them a lot.  They asked me to babysit Willow from a very young age.  They trusted me with their sweet girl.  That told me a lot.

I consider Jennifer a sister.  She’s been just as close as one and sometimes even closer.  Golden Boy is a wonderful brother to have because I can talk to him about the things that matter to me and he gets it.  We joke and tease and are still good friends at the end of the day.

When I first started looking into grad schools, they both knew that I probably wasn’t going to apply too far from here because I didn’t want to be too far from their two beautiful kids.  They told me not to worry about that.  They said that they would make sure I was a part of the kids’ lives no matter where I live.  They said they would make sure to visit so I could see the kids.

I couldn’t ask for better friends.

Moreso, I couldn’t ask for a better brother or sister-in-law.  They are my family.