It's Not Goodbye, It's See You Later

Now I've been to just about every kind of party there is - birthday, bridal shower, baby shower, holidays, just because, and my parents have held most of these themselves. However, what we have never threw was a going away party... specifically for my brother. Even though my brother went to away to college for his undergrad, he was only two hours away, and we knew he'd be home some weekends, and that we'd get to go visit him. This time was different; he was off to medical school, a school that is about 7 hours away from us. We didn't make a huge deal over the party. We invited close family and friends who we knew would want to say "see you later." My dad picked up plenty of boxes of pizza, and everyone brought drinks. We turned up the music, and the night went on.

I, of course, had to work that day, but I went in as early as I could, so I could make it home on time, before people started to arrive. When my dad walked in with the pizza, I walked in with him. Cousins came that we rarely see, aunts, uncles, and friends... all people who care so much about my brother and although sad to see him go, excited for him to embark on this next adventure... the next part of his journey to become a doctor. We shared stories that made each other laugh, and ate until our stomachs couldn't take another bite... but we weren't sure if that was because we were laughing so hard, or we really did eat too much pizza. It didn't matter at that point.

I kept catching glances of my brother, smiling, and not that fake smile that you catch people making every now and then, not the kind of smile that you can tell hurts people to be making because they're not happy, but I saw a pure, genuine smile that let me know he wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now. I didn't want to think about the next couple of days, when he'd be packing up all of his things. I didn't want to think about his empty room. I didn't want to think about the fact that my brother, the boy who I grew up with for 22 years, would be leaving me to go to a different state. All of that stuff could wait until we dropped him off, until we drove away.