You can't choose your relatives, but you can choose to be less of a judgmental asshat

I went to Nebraska for my cousin’s wedding this weekend, and despite the insanity with my grandparents – between my grandma’s advanced dementia and somehow all of us forgetting her ID, and my stubborn grandpa falling every other hour because the man refuses to use his damn cane – I developed a little better of an appreciation for my family.

I’m the first-born cousin, and I’ve always been too old to hang w/ the kids and too young to hang with the adults. This time, however, I actually got to spend quality time w/ my mom, her brothers and my aunts. We talked about my mom and uncle's childhoods. We shot the breeze at the hotel bar, dissecting our innate lapsed Irish-Catholic guilt, laughed our asses off, had a few drinks, and I felt closer to them than I have in years.

It was great. I came home exhausted, but inspired to continue to do great things with my life.

My cousin married at 21, literally right out of college, and she’s bound to make a 6 figure salary, and have the happy marriage, the house, the kids, and the dog, and I couldn’t be more proud of her. She worked hard to get where she is, and deserves happiness on her terms. Not to mention, she and her new husband are the cliché couple that is made for each other. Seriously. They're adorable together.

I never believed that the typical path was going to be mine, but I’m discovering every day that I’m cool with that.

I’m bound for a teaching career, traveling, and hopefully, someday, a relationship that sticks, because of the right reasons, instead of obligation. I’m learning to lessen my grip of the time line. I’m going to be 30 this year, and it hit me, that I’m really still just a kid. My life is still right in front of me, and I can afford to just fucking chill out about things once in a while.

Things happen as they are meant to. I just have to do what I’m happiest doing, and let everything else fall right into place.