It actually started a month ago with the surprise party my sisters threw for me. That’s why it really worked as a surprise because I was so not expecting it… a month to go before I leave?! Plus there was that whole matter of Jenny’s (aka Li’l J, aka my youngest sister) grad dinner as a cover-up. The night was fun – all the people you love under one roof. There’s always two sides to that. First off, you don’t know if they have anything in common except you. Sometimes you also tend to act differently with various groups of people. And as the “host” you don’t want to play favorites and spend all your time with only 1 group. You have to flit from one table to the next (hence the term “social butterfly”). But over-all, it was a nice intro night to see everyone all in one room and to really officially say it’s true, I am leaving. It makes it real somehow.
Shouts out to my 3 sisters for pulling it off brilliantly -- the small details, the coordinated tablecloths and candles, the food from my favorite som's. Sweet and thoughtful. We're not the super close sisters who gimik with each other but we have our moments.
It was the last night I would spend with all my cousins together. Regretfully, I wasn’t able to really hang out 100% with them but there were three good moments I remembered. One was when we viewed the home videos we dug up of my grandma’s 60th (?) birthday almost 15 years (?) ago. Try as I might to have Ramon, my boyfriend, laugh along with me, it was different to have the people you grew up with laugh along with you. My cousins themselves knew how really ridiculous we and everyone else looked and how it was so much fun to tease one another about it. Reminiscing childhood memories with the people you spent it with is always a cherished pastime. Maybe it’s because it brings you back to those carefree times and having them remember it with you makes it all the more real. Second was the time when we were all a bit tipsy and we were just laughing and teasing about inane topics (one of our other favorite pastime!). Last was when one of my cousins, Jigoy, told me before he left early that night to book and save a solo lunch for him since it might be the last time he sees me before I leave for a seminar since he will be in the States when I finally leave for Singapore. Even though the lunch never happened (why didn’t it happen?), it’s the thought that counts I guess?!
I always think that I’m so lucky to have these set of people as both my family and as people whom I genuinely want to spend time with. I don’t want it to end up like those adult familial relationships wherein you either gossip about your cousins or resent them for what they have versus you. I value my cousins for their acceptance, for only they know what it was and is like, for the laughs, the tragedies we have shared, the authenticity we have with each other. The good thing is of course I know we won’t grow far apart because we’re family. I take that for granted.
