Exercise #5 Part 2

            Spending quality time with a family is a gift that is priceless. The joyous moments spent with someone you love and who loves you can brighten up your day and leave you happier then ever. Although at times it may seem impossible to spend quality time with those you love, because of your busy schedules, it is something that is worthwhile. For this assignment, I decided to spend quality time with my older sister, Tyler. And I was extremely happy that I did so.

            Tyler is my best friend in the entire world. It has been so hard for me this year, for she has been away at Boston College and I don’t get a chance to see her as much as I would like. But this past week Tyler had off for Easter, giving me a chance to finally see her. She came home two weekends ago, and the very first day of her arrival I snatched her away to have a sister bonding night. First, we went to Starbucks and got our usual order- two grande Caramel Macchiatos. Before she went to school, we would go to Starbucks every Saturday and order this drink, and then we would sit and catch up until we had to go home. Sometimes we would be there for 10 minutes, and other times we would find ourselves chatting for 2 hours. That day, we were there for around an hour, for we still had other places to hit on our “welcome home” date.

            Next we went to Wards Berry Farm, the local farm store where my sister and I both work. She wanted to go and visit some of our fellow employees and friends while she was home, and thought it was a good a time as ever to do it today. At Wards she was catching up with everyone, sharing some of her funny college stories, and listening intently to their stories about school here in Sharon. We stayed there for a while, but then continued on our journey, because we had a dinner to catch!

            The two of us headed to Bertuccis, Tyler’s favorite restaurant and our typical sister dinner destination. During dinner, we continued to fill each other in on what has taken place since we were last together. It was great to hear about all of her new friends and classes that she is taking, but it made me sad to realize how distant we have become. After dinner, we returned back to our house and watched my favorite movie, The Other Guys (another tradition of ours). Once again, we had a great time sharing laughs, quoting all of the lines, and reminiscing in the previous times we have seen this movie together.

            At the end of the night, I told Tyler how happy I was to have caught up with her. I told her that we need to make sure to communicate more than our typical, brief phone conversations, because staying in touch is extremely important. I told her how happy I am when we talk and see each other, and how I don’t want that to change when she returns to college. College is a major boundary that keeps us from seeing each other as much as we both would like. Since that isn’t going to change anytime soon, we decided that we need to figure out a way to stay in contact on a more regular basis. After some discussion, we decided that weekly video chats are necessary, that way we can see each other instead of just hearing each others’ voices on the phone or talking via text message. We also agreed that I should visit her more often. Since she only lives a half hour away, she is now settled in to her college surroundings, and I can drive, stopping by is a plausible remedy.

            I’m very happy and optimistic that we will be communicating and keeping in touch more now. After spending that bonding night with Tyler, not only did we both have a great time, we now established a solution to staying in touch even while she is at college. I hope that it will work out, for simply being in Tyler’s presence or talking with her on the phone makes me feel happier.