Brother/Sister Bonding

At 10:45, as I was rubbing my tired eyes and getting ready to say good-night to my family, realization dawned on me. 

"Oh man, it's Tuesday and I totally forgot to blog!" 

My comment piqued my brother's attention. "Wait, you have a blog?" he asked inquisitively. Then, almost instantly... "Show me!" 

For the next ten minutes, I put on my tour guide hat and showed my brother around my blog. Although I was hesitant at first, wondering if he'd find it boring, I found myself gradually giving more detail as he expressed a growing interest. Each question he asked or comment he made led to a new explanation of a different facet of my writing or of the Slice of Life challenge. 

"So, do people read your blog? How do they find it?"     

                            We looked at the statistics section of my blogger account and then jumped to the 

                             TWT website to learn about the Slice of Life Challenge. 

"Wow! That post got a lot of views! What was it about?"

                             We clicked over to skim through a few of my posts...

"What else do you write about?" 

                              ...and then we kept scrolling and reading together.

"Oh, Mrs. M (his English teacher) would love that sentence..." 

                             My heart smiled as he singled out and recited one of the sentences I had tried to carefully craft in a previous post. 

           

And then, my favorite question came..."So, are you going to post tonight?" he asked. 

I had been asking myself the very same question. "Well," I responded, "I do every Tuesday, but we were so busy today that the day just sort of got away from me. It's the first week I've missed since March 1st, though..." 

"Write a post now!" he cried, inching a bit closer to the laptop. "You could write about our day today! You know, write about all of the places we went together. Or write about all of the details we had to go through when we bought the laptop just now." 

"I was thinking about it..." I told him hesitantly. I wasn't sure if I had it in me to craft a blog post this late at night after such a full day. 

"Come on, I'll help you!" 

And that was all of the convincing I needed. If my "little" brother (it's hard to call him "little" when he is 18 years old and towers 15 inches above me, his "big" sister) was willing to help me keep my Slice of Life commitment, then how could I resist? 

Having just spent the entire day together running errands for his upcoming graduation party, we certainly had enough to write about. We could write about the brother/sister breakfast date we had at the local diner... or about purchasing a graduation cake and party supplies...or about any of the errands we did as we hit 14 different stores together today! 

But as the clock inched closer and closer to midnight, I decided to rely on two simple pictures (per Andrew's suggestion) to relay how Andrew and I felt after a very fun and productive (but exhausting) afternoon. After all, they say a picture is worth a thousand words... and we are both far too tired to write that much tonight! 

Secret snapshots taken by my mom after Andrew
and I came home from a marathon of errand running for his
upcoming high school graduation party

~

Slice of Life is a weekly blogging challenge hosted by Two Writing Teachers.

Check out their webpage and then join us each Tuesday to share a slice of your life!

Honor Cords

Waves of black polyester blew a midst the sea of 10,000 graduates. My eyes darted from one colored Master's hood to another, desperately trying to find the one graduate who held my heart. Finally, miraculously, I spotted him in the crowd.

"There he is!" I squealed, quickly zooming in my camera lens as far as it would go.

Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! My camera joined the chorus of others around me, as a stadium full of spectators sought to somehow preserve this priceless moment in a tangible form.

I reviewed the pictures I had snapped to ensure that I had at least a handful that were worthy of including in the photo album I would later make. As I zoomed in on the small screen to examine my photography work, the black polyester and brightly-colored hoods faded into the background, and as they did, one object became the clear focus of my gaze.

It was a strand of four carefully woven cords that hung regally around my husband's neck and draped over his shoulders. Golden and royal blue, the cords stood out in stark contrast to their black background. The small number of graduates that were similarly ornamented proved that these cords were rare and valuable--costly in a way that money couldn't buy.

But as I looked upon these four cords, it was not their appearance that caught my attention. Instead, what gripped me was the sweet story they told. Theirs was a story so powerful that it drowned out the cheers and chatter coming from the 60,000 people around me, leaving me completely captivated. It was a story I knew well, but one I was happy to relive.

Blowing in the wind, the cords whispered the tale of an underdog. They told of a man trained extensively in music, not finance--one who had the courage to enter the unknown world of business equipped with only the knowledge he had gained from his personal reading of the works of Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett.

Swish, Swish. The cords swayed, speaking now of that same man, lacking confidence and expecting to rank at the bottom of every MBA class. They told of his hard work, determination, and many sleepless nights.

And then, as the wind changed direction, the cords began a new chapter in their story. They championed the triumphant underdog, who, by God's grace, rose to the top 15% of his class, coming from far behind and excelling in every area of the new world he had entered.

On and on the cords went, telling their story and reminding me of the many sacrifices that had been made along the road to this graduation ceremony. As I listened to their tale, my heart overflowed with pride and love for the man who humbly donned the four honor cords.

Slice of Life is a weekly blogging challenge hosted by Two Writing Teachers.
Check out their webpage and then join us each Tuesday to share a slice of your life!