Connected%3A+Changes

Connected: Changes

September 19, 2017

Early in December of 2011, my parents gathered my two brothers and me into the living room with the
promise of an “early Christmas present.” My 13-year- old self was expecting something like a surprise
vacation, and I imagine that my eight and 15-year- old brothers were expecting something along that line
as well.

Then, my mom said the very last words I expected to hear that night: I’m pregnant.
Now, you would think that a person would be overjoyed to find out that they’re getting a new little
brother or sister, but not me (not at the time, at least). I was so shocked and confused that I cried. I’m a
person who absolutely hates change, so I didn’t want our family of five to change after so many years.
Fast forward to now, my sweet little sister is my favorite person in the world.

I know I’m not the only much, much older sibling in the world. Anyone who is one can tell you that
having a new addition thrown into your seemingly complete family changes it in every conceivable way.
Suddenly, we were searching for a new home and preparing the one I had grown up in my whole life to
be put up for sale. Some of the baby toys and clothes that had been boxed up years ago were being
pulled out of the attic, and others were being returned to us by family members we had loaned them to.
Our new home was being stocked up with diapers, baby bottles, onesies and pacifiers.

When Molly arrived in August of 2012, my entire family was thrown back into the “baby life.” I’m pretty
sure in that time I mastered the art of changing diapers and being as quiet as humanly possible during
naptime.

When Molly came around, my older brother Cullen and I were making our way through high school,
while my younger brother Sean was finishing up middle school and preparing to make the transition to
high school. As anyone who has ever been a high school student knows, high school is stressful both in
the classroom and outside of it. There are days when you feel like the stress is just too much for you to
handle. On top of that, you have to prepare to enter the “real world” of college and jobs and bills and
taxes. It’s easy to become overwhelmed with life.

With Molly around, there was something noticeably different about our household, like a new life had
been put into it. Sean, the too-cool- for-school athlete, became a total softie. Cullen was able to put his
trademark childhood creativity back to work when it came to playing with her. I was brought back into
the world of princesses and fairytales, and, when I got there, I wondered why I had ever left it behind.
It’s like we were all children again.

Molly came into our lives at a time when we were ready to accept that growing up is inevitable. What
she showed us, though, is that it doesn’t have to be. Sometimes the best remedy for growing up is to
not do it at all.

Every person in the world is going to experience change in his or her life, and it’s okay to feel confused,
scared or even a little angry about that reality. Few people are able to face the unknown without even
the smallest bit of fear inside them. I certainly didn’t handle the news that my family would be
undergoing drastic changes well at first. Looking at my life now, though, I know that change was not only
what my family needed, but it was the best thing that could have happened to us.

Molly has helped me to hold on to that light of childhood inside of me. She has kept me immersed in the
world of princesses, arts and crafts, dolls and cartoons. She is, as we love to say, the Anna to my Elsa
(and, of course, I’m the Elsa to her Anna). Despite the whopping 14-year age gap between us, she’s my
best friend.

I wish I could go back to that night in December and tell those things to the girl who cried because she
didn’t want her family to change. I wish I could tell her that the change she was about to experience
would be the greatest one of her life. I wish I could tell her that her new little sister would keep her sane
in a time of what felt like insanity.

As you make your way through college and into the “real world,” you’re going to experience change in
some capacity, whether in your family, education, job or another part of your life. That change may
seem overwhelming, but over time you may come to find that change was exactly what you needed.

Change will always be scary, but it can be beautiful too. So, try to be optimistic about the changes that
happen in your life. I promise you that they will work out in your favor. They certainly did in mine.

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