My dad has a gianourmous family. He’s like #8 in a 10 kid series. My eldest cousin is 47; my mom is 51’if that tells you anything. We grew up with my uncle John and aunt Eileen’s kids. They lived right across the highway from us. When I finally got to Blaine Senior High there had already been seven Chromeys before me’all of them John and Eileen’s kids.

So the sister club and I made the trek up to Blaine for Buddy’s, the first of John and Eileen’s grandchildren, graduation. Buddy had finally graduated, a few months late, but he had graduated nonetheless and we were going to celebrate.

I was excited to go. I had grown up with John and Eileen’s family. When my family moved to Wisconsin, John and Eileen’s family took me in. John and Eileen’s daughters, Cathy, Laurie, Terri, Patty, Donna, and Wendy’were the women I grew up adoring and wanting so much to be like.

Well, not Wendy so much, she’s only a year older than me. I never really wanted to be like her. We were more friends than anything else. But the rest of the lot, I adored. They were my cool older cousins.

Any family event we attended I would always ask if Laurie and Cathy were gonna be there, because they were so cool and made everything so much more fun.

But I’ve done a lot of growing up since we used to gather all the time for family events like Christmas and Thanksgiving. All those women have grown up and have children of their own. It’s been a long time since we’ve all hung out. I was nervous that it would be awkward like it is with the rest of my dad’s side of the family.

When I hit the kitchen yesterday, Cathy swooped down on me.

‘Oh, the girls [her daughters Krista 11, and Lindsey, 9] are going to be so happy. They kept asking if Jodi and Ericka [sister #2] were gonna be here.’

Rad, I thought, I’m not the cool cousin. Then after a few minutes I thought, hey, I’m too young to be the cool cousin. But it was too late. I answered questions about my nose ring and my tattoos. I answered questions about college and my palm pilot. After awhile, they grew tired of me and went off to play mom with my nephew Cade.

Being the cool older cousin was weird, because I’m still used to being the nerdy younger cousin. What was the weirdest though was realizing that my older cousins weren’t quite as cool as I remember. There they were in their perms, turquoise eyeliner, and cans of Lite beer, and suddenly I felt so lost. They were still talking about high school and wanting to get a good coach so we could make it to state again.

They were telling me how depressing it was for them when they turned 30 because they thought their lives were over.

‘I knew I was done having kids, I knew this was all my life was gonna be,’ Laurie said.
‘That is sad,’ I said, ‘because I love being 30. I have so much to look forward to. I love my job and someday I’ll get married and have kids. I think it’s great.’
‘Yeah,’ she said, ‘Sometimes I wonder what my hurry was. Kory and I have been married 15 years. I never had a chance to be a young, single woman. You are lucky.’

Then the garage was all quiet and awkward, because we were both trying not to cry.

‘You two,’ her sister Cathy butted in, ‘Stop with the crying! Some things never change.’

And she was right, because no matter how many years pass, how long it’s been since we’ve all been together, it never changes. We seem to glide easily back into the camaraderie I so adored when I was growing up. Family is such a beautiful thing.