It all started the night before... It was the day that I would watch my brothers leave for college. It was the day I would be the only child at home and it was a hard, long night. All I could think about was helping them get ready to leave in the morning. As the night was turning into the morning I just thought to myself that this couldn’t be real and that things like this shouldn’t be happening, but right before my eyes they would be saying goodbye.

The car ride seemed like it was taking forever but it was just about an hour. I had a weird felling. I started to go back to the day that my older brother first moved into collage and then I thought about all the times that I missed him and all the times that I wanted to see him but yet I couldn’t because we were just to far apart. My heart sank. It was one of the worst feelings to know that your best friends would be gone and that I would have to do a lot of things by myself and not with them. I started thinking how it would be different this year because I have always looked up to my brothers. This year I wouldn’t have either of them to help me because they would both be gone in college. There comes a time in life when you have to give up something and just keep on going with your life. This was one of the moments when I had to just remember all the good memories that I had with them over the summer. I started to think about the last time that we had fun and that took me back to the Elkhart County 4H fair when we got to watch Tyler Farr and Parmalee sing. It was one of the best times that I had with my brothers just because I knew that they were trying to make it a fun time and they wanted me to be happy, and that made me realize that I should be happy for them.

As we pulled up to Manchester University I just looked around and saw everything right in front of my eyes students, parents and siblings all helping move in and saying their last goodbyes. As we stopped at my brother’s dorm everything started to seem real, people were coming out to help carry everything up to the third floor. All I wanted to do was help carry stuff up but the people wearing red shirts that read, “Let us move you,” took my job and I had to stand there and watch them move him in. I climbed the stairs that took me to the floor were my brother was staying and I watched my brother Eric take his first step; through the door that opened a new beginning to a new future.

As I gave him a hug goodbye I finally realized that even though I was sad for myself I knew that he would do just fine. I guess at that moment I realized it really wasn’t an end to our time together, but it would be something different that we would both learn to adjust to. It’s times like these that you appreciate all the times that you have with your family.