The smiling face you see on top belongs to my older brother, someone I've been privileged to know as my best friend my whole life. My senior year of high school, arguably one of the most difficult years of my life, he decided to leave on a two year mission for a church one could say I had a bit of "beef" with. For the purpose of this post, I'll just leave it at that. Suffice it to say, I wasn't too thrilled about this decision.
The day he left seemed to be a road sign marking exactly where the other three in that picture, my parents and myself, would start on a path that went only uphill... and seemingly through every natural disaster you can think of. It was a tumultuous time for my family and the world, as smack dab in the middle of this path was a giant natural disaster we've all come to know as the year 2020.
It wasn't as though my brother leaving was the root of every road bump we ran into in those two years, but it felt as though we were dealing with everything coming at us missing a limb. We were trying to find our way with a piece of the map torn off.
When those two years finally drew to an end, it felt like everything was going to fall into place. But, of course, this couldn't happen without 2020 rearing it's ugly head one last time. We received a phone call expecting to be told that my brother was on his way home. Instead we were told his mission companion had come down with Covid-19 and the powers at be were unsure of when he would be able to return home. We could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel... just before it was covered with a KN95 Medical mask and a shelter in place order.
Eventually, however, we were finally able to get him home, and that brings us to the picture you see at the top.
Seeing this picture for me feels like hope, and relief. It sounds like tears of joy and smells just slightly of airport disinfectant. I'm reminded of every emotion I felt that day. The importance of family- the people who made you who you are and helped you over everything and anything difficult you've ever gone through came to life in a way it never had before.
When my brother got home that day, the world was still in chaos. We were in the middle of pandemic and the country was still divided more than ever. Our personal struggles were still alive and well. Health, and education, and relationships were still falling apart, but we were a family again. Somehow, impossibly, that made it all manageable. The day he came home, it was as if someone had finally drawn the curtains on a dark and dreary house. Sure, beyond the window, the world was a bit of a disaster, but at least there was sunlight.
From that day forward I never took for granted what I had been given in those three people. I'm never going to be ashamed to say that they're my favorite people, without whom I would've been a shell of the person I am today. What may look like a family portrait at first glance, is a piece of moment when I realized how lucky I was, and I think that's pretty great.
