Julia Brown

The Day I Wanted Forever

When all of this began I was just thirteen and my sister was eighteen. As I saw my sister, Sarah, walk in the kitchen door, bringing a gust of cold air in behind her, she had the biggest smile on her face. Her smile, that seemed to stretch from ear to ear, made me begin to wonder what was happening. I was so anxious to know what she was about to announce.

Sarah said, “MOM AND DAD!”

My parents responded, “What?”

As she started jumping up and down with excitement, Sarah immediately said, “I got into James Madison University!”

 My parents were so happy to hear the exciting news. My dad picked her up and spun her around in circles.

            I had waited forever for the day she would finally go off to college because of our constant fighting. I realized that the time until she left was only a couple months away. Knowing that she was leaving meant that I would have our gray, rectangular room all to myself. I knew that I would definitely miss wearing her cute trendy clothes, and her braiding my brown, thin hair whenever I wanted.

            Sarah’s graduation approached quicker than I ever imagined. We began to invite what felt like 100 family members and friends. The day of her graduation finally arrived, and I couldn’t believe it. Sitting in the hard, blue seats of the Salem Civic Center was like sitting on cement. As I sat there, I began to think, “Is this really happening?” She had been with me my whole life, living in the same house, and to all of a sudden leave for college, where I would maybe see her every two months was crazy to think about. Over the loud speaker I heard the high pitched, blonde women’s voice say, “Sarah Brown” she walked across the tall, black stage receiving her diploma.

            That night, at her graduation party, our family and friends began to show up. We sat eating dinner, playing games, and talking to one another. I began to smell fresh peanut butter and chocolate. I looked around from where it was coming from and I spotted it. I took a bite of my grandma’s soft, warm peanut butter chocolate fudge. The last piece of fudge was calling my name, so of course I had to eat it. The night was filled with good laughter from friends and family celebrating my sister’s next step in life.

            The whole summer was still ahead of us before the day she had to leave. We continued to fight and she never wanted to take me anywhere with her.

Sarah would say, “Julia you are so annoying stop.”

I would respond, “You are too.”

            This would always be the trigger to start our fights.

The pile in our basement kept getting bigger and bigger with all the stuff she was buying for her new dorm room. I knew her room was going to be super cute because of her awesome taste.

            Well, the day finally came, the day we were going to take her to college, August 26^th. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and the sky was bright blue. The day I had wanted to come quicker than ever until I actually realized what it meant. I told myself I was not going to let one tear leave my eye. We pulled into the parking lot, we unloaded all of her stuff, met her roommate, and it was time to say our last goodbye. My sister seemed super excited to start a new part of her life.

With my rollercoaster of emotions I did not know what to think. My parents gave her a hug and then I did. It seemed as if the hug lasted forever but in reality it was two seconds. I knew this was not a goodbye forever, but it sure felt like it.

My parents said, “Goodbye, Sarah, we will miss you!”

“You do not know how much I am going to miss you guys too, you have done so much for me and I love you,” she responded.

Pulling the skinny warm handle of our car door to go home made me sad. All I could think about in the two hours until we got home was how much I was going to miss her. I could tell my parents were going to miss her a ton too because of all the tears. Many weeks passed before I got to see her again.

All the years I wished for her to leave I wanted back so I could have spent more time with her and not fight with her about ever little stupid thing. Thinking back on how mean I was to her I regret all of it, I realized how much she had actually done for me and how good of a big sister she was to me.