But We Got Along Better With a Country Between Us

Exactly four years ago today, my parents and I said adios to my brother at the airport. He was on a one way trip to Seattle to chase a new job and new life out on the west coast.

Honestly, I kind of enjoyed my brother living in Seattle.

Besides the obvious perks of him being out there {like having a really good reason to go visit}, he and I were never close when we were growing up and we fought a lot. We didn't get along, we would never hang out with each other, and I think I was the most obnoxious younger sister in the entire world.

There was a brief period during my freshman year of college where we did actually get along and we did hang out. I had just started at Clemson and he was a senior. Don't worry though - it was very brief, and once he graduated it was over. Y'all. We were 19 & 22 and still couldn't manage to get along with one another.

I can even tell you the exact day that my brother and I genuinely hugged for the first time. October 14, 2007, in case you were wondering, which was oh you know, 7 years ago yesterday {coincidence?}

But then this really cool thing happened. My brother moved to Seattle. Suddenly, he and I started to get along. We found out that we have a little more in common than a love for chicken fingers, french fries, and Lawry's seasoning salt and a dislike for Christmas morning pictures.

We still took pictures like we were complete strangers like this one:

But we were getting better at this whole sibling thing!

Now, he puts up with my Sunday afternoon phone calls when I'm driving back to Charlotte. We can hang out together at the beach. I'm really good at picking out new clothes for him for Christmas. He can text "SEA!!!" and immediately get a "HAWKS!!!" back from me.

See? So much better at this sibling thing. I think that the whole never seeing each other thing helped out a lot.

I wonder what's going to happen now that he's moved back to Charleston?

Yup. You read that correctly.

He's back on the east coast and I know more than a few people who are very excited about that fact.

I'm just excited that I won't be the lone child anymore at Thanksgiving/Easter/Mother's Day/Father's Day and that I no longer have to set up the family FaceTime on those days. 

Yay!