CELEBRATE!

 

Hello! Well, here we are again – having to explain our absence on the blog for yet another week. I feel a tad guilty as it was my turn to post last week and I just couldn’t get around to it. Truth is, I can barely gather myself and muster enough energy to post this week. I’ve had a whirlwind month of May. I legit have not been home one single weekend in May. If you couldn’t gather from the title and picture above, it’s mostly because I’ve been busy CELEBRATING!

The first weekend I had to drill and stay down at Cape Cod. I was also simultaneously working on last minute wedding arrangements, details, and packing. The second weekend was our wedding in St. John (see Jill’s blog post from two weeks ago if you missed it)! The third weekend I flew to Iowa for sister Kristen’s graduation. The fourth weekend, this past weekend, we drove to upstate New York to spend Memorial Day with Larry’s family. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “Well, you dumb bastard, no wonder you are tired and don’t feel like writing. Maybe you should have relaxed after your wedding. Did you REALLY need to go to your sister’s college graduation? I mean, a lot of people graduate these days. It’s not really that big of deal. Oh, and did you really need to CELEBRATE Memorial Day in New York with Larry’s family? Didn’t you just see most of them in St. John for the wedding?” Well, I have to admit, those questions actually crossed my mind as well so you aren’t a total A-hole if you, reader, are thinking them to yourself. Obviously though, I chose to CELEBRATE both events and can’t imagine choosing not to CELEBRATE them. I’m going to post twice this week so that I can talk separately about both Kristen’s college graduation and Memorial Day weekend so let’s start with Kristen’s graduation…

Coincidentally, one of our other wedding guests was also graduating the same weekend as Kristen, albeit from a different school in a different state. She is a good family friend of Larry’s. I had a conversation with her down in St. John that provided me with a new life motto and confirmed my decision that even though it seemed crazy to travel merely two days after our return from the wedding, it was absolutely necessary AND worth it. Anyway, on one of the last nights that all of our guests were in St. John, Larry and I met a bunch of them at one of the bars to say good-bye. I was talking to this particular family friend that would soon be graduating and saying how nice it was that her parents, sister, and Larry’s parents were going to be able to make it down for her graduation. I asked her if she was excited and she said she was not super excited because she didn’t “think it was a big deal.” I immediately responded with a gut reaction and told her that YES, it WAS a big deal! I explained that it might not have seemed like a big deal to her at the time because her entire circle of friends was also graduating so she likely couldn’t see outside of that immediate circle and realize how many people actually DON’T graduate from college. I further went on to explain that even if almost everyone graduated from college, it was still worth CELEBRATING. I specifically remember telling her, “life is too short- CELEBRATE everything.” It was a spontaneous quote at the moment, but I think I’m going to make it my new life motto.

Anyhow, fast forward to sister Kristen’s graduation. Yes, she was the fifth Alesch sister to successfully graduate from college. Yes, she is not an anomaly. But most importantly, YES, it was absolutely worth CELEBRATING. The thing is, I realized as I sat in the blazing hot auditorium listening to way too many names being called, when you CELEBRATE any event whether it be a graduation, a birthday, a wedding, etc., you aren’t just CELEBRATING that very specific accomplishment. Rather, you are CELEBRATING everything that has led the individual being CELEBRATED to that specific mark. In this case, we were CELEBRATING the mature, young woman that our sister had become. We were CELEBRATING everything that she both succeeded at and failed at over the last four years. From having a run-in with the police, getting that first failing grade, and rationalizing random college hookups to being brave enough to study abroad in Spain, making it through Army Basic Combat Training and getting accepted to Teach For America, we were CELEBRATING it all…failures and successes alike. And it was absolutely freaking beautiful. After all, “life should not only be lived, it should be celebrated.”