The Great British Joke-off
This past weekend was Easter weekend. Now, normally my family doesn’t really do anything that exciting for Easter, but it’s at least a time for us all to get together, hang out, go to church, and eat a delicious meal. Naturally, I expected this year to be no different. But as the weekend came closer, my parents told me that it wouldn't just be our family, but instead some of their old friends from college would be coming to America to join us. I was immediately a little put off by this, because I don't get a chance to spend that much time with just my family, and it was an opportunity to do so that I felt like was getting taken away for me.
Leading up to the weekend, I was a little grumpy about the whole thing. I felt like I was going to be a fifth wheel between my parents and their friends, and I was just going to be left out. Plus my sister had some other her friends visiting from out of town, so I wasn't even going to spend time with her either. I was beginning to wonder why I was about to make the 3 hour drive all the way to Boone by myself to probably just hang out by alone. But nevertheless, I went.
And I'm really glad that I did. The weekend was spent reminiscing on old times had with my parents and their friends, and I was lucky that I got to be there to experience it. My dad’s friend was making all kinds of hilarious jokes at him that sounded identical to the ones that my college friends do at each other now. He told us stories about all the entertaining things my dad had done during college and all of the misguided decisions he had made along the way. He was even calling him "Robby," a demeaning name spoken in a baby voice that always makes him mad. It was hilarious.
The whole weekend reminded me of all of my own college friends that I've become so close with now. The same jokes that Smithy was cracking at my dad are the ones that I crack at my friends every single day. He was even making jabs at me! He was making fun of how obsessed I am with the UNC-Duke rivalry and my college major and all my friends and boyfriend. It was like they were part of our family. Even though it wasn't the simple family gathering that I had hoped for, it might have been even better. I realized that it's not the blood that makes the family, but the people that make it feel like that.
What’s more, it was comforting to see that even though it had been 30-something years since they had been at college together, they were still just as close, and it gave me a lot of comfort to know that that it will probably be the same way with me and mine. It's coming up on the end of the year, and I had been starting to get sad that maybe I won't be seeing some of the people that I love as often as I do now, if ever again. But seeing my parents and their old college friends hang out reminded me that all it takes is a little bit of effort to stay in touch. If my dad can still keep in touch with his friends 30 years after leaving college, there's absolutely no reason why I can't, as well.
