Nick is about two-and-a-half years younger than me, but we were always close growing up. Due to the years between us, we never really got to play sports on the same team and we weren't in middle school or high school together until my senior/his freshman year, but leading up to that we were pretty much inseparable.
I still remember a story my parents tell me from going to the beach when Nick was only a few years old and I was just a little older than him. Apparently, instead of running around and playing and doing all the other sort of idiot things kids my age should've been doing, I was watching out for Nick and sitting with him, even though my parents assured me that they were looking out for him and I could go do whatever.
I feel bad, as through the process of growing up and getting out of Lewiston (I was at college for three years before Nick joined me at the University of Maine as I was in my last year of undergraduate work), we weren't able to maintain the closeness that we had as we were growing up. Once Nick relocated to the Orono/Old Town area on a semi-permanent basis in the past few years, we were able to spend more time together, but one of the bummers of growing up is that people head out on their own paths.
Indeed, this "striking out on new paths" issue is why Nick is a groomsman and not my best man; about a month before my wedding, Nick will be getting married to his longtime love Kimberly Strout, on September 18th, 2010 (Kim and Nick's Wedding Page on TheKnot). Because he is going to need to be concerned with the planning of his own wedding as much as I am involved in the planning of my wedding to Katelyn, we came to a mutual agreement that each of us would use our best friends as best men and that we would be groomsman for each other's weddings.
I love my little brother, and I can say that I'm lucky to have had Nick in that role for me. There are too many memories to even begin to address without setting aside months for a book, but for the eighteen years of my life before I went off for my first year of college, we were big parts of each other's lives and I miss that sometimes. Of course, I don't miss having to wake up extra early to make sure that Nick would be awake in time for school in the morning when I was in high school! But there were many great times playing street hockey on Hilltop Avenue in Lewiston though, or playing together in our high school rock band, Hibryd, or playing video games together on all the systems we owned throughout the years.
As I reach this stage of my life where I am looking at being married to the woman I love in less than a year, I am happy that my brother is at this same place. While he and Kim have been together far longer than Katelyn and I have, it is exciting to think that both of us "Parker Brothers" will be getting married in the same year.
I am proud of what Nick has been able to accomplish in his life so far, and I will be happy to stand with him as he gets married and have him standing next to me as I get married.
No comments:
Post a Comment