And so it begins...

I spent the last five days hanging out with my dad, stepmother and siblings in North Carolina. I went town to help them celebrate my dad’s 61st birthday and figured I would just take a semi vacation and stayed through the weekend. It was a weekend filled with wake up calls, reality checks and uncertainty.

It’s really hitting me, I’m getting older. My sister and I went to my alma mater’s campus this weekend and everyone was walking around with a cell phone. I started thinking about my college years and realized 1) I graduated from school 10 years ago this May. 2) No one had a cell phone while I was at school and 3) we were barely using the internet back then. I had a school email account but I remember getting a hotmail or yahoo account my sophomore and rarely using it.

I’m glad my sister and I don’t have low self esteem otherwise we’d have serious issues, well issues besides the ones that we already have. I was able to comfortably fit into my little sister’s 7 jeans and the first thing my dad does when I tell him is ask my 17 year old sister if she’s gained weight since I was able to fit into her jeans. Parents you gotta love ‘em.

My dad and stepmother have a huge dilemma on their hands with my little brother. I alluded to a family issue a few months ago but now that my sister is gearing and heading up to college in about a year the issue of my parent’s inability or unwillingness to financially cut my brother off is going to hurt us all in the long run. I understand my step mother has guilt issues and leaving her only son to the financial wolves isn’t high on her list but my brother is working a dead end job, isn’t going to school and although he says he’s going to finish college he has no immediate plans on going back for his degree. The way I see it, the money they’re spending on him could be saved for my sister’s college bid.