Daniel J.

Today was a pretty lazy day for me. It was kind of a horrible day, because Tyler left and I wasn't even there to say goodbye (my own fault - basically, I'm the worst person in the world). I sort of let myself mope around and be sorry for myself. I hate goodbyes, and I hate it even more when people leave without actually saying goodbye. Today, that was me. I was the one who didn't say goodbye. I can promise you that I will never forget that. It was one of those horrible, guilty, stomach-sinking kind of feelings that tells you that you'll never really forgive yourself for it. The good thing about it is that it's not really goodbye - it's a "see you later" kind of goodbye; a high five instead of a hug. We'll all be together again soon enough. There will just be a long, two and a half year gap in between our farewell and our reunion. But by that point, we'll be able to share all of our amazing spiritual experiences and talk about how incredible our missions were. So, it could be worse. I'm still a jerk though. 

My brother, Daniel, really, truly cheered me up though. I know he had no idea just how much he made my day, but he did. One of my favorite parts about coming home is hanging out with my little brother. He's not really all that little; in fact, he's pretty huge and has facial hair (which is super strange for me). I think I like him more than he likes me sometimes, but we get along. He is my best friend, and though we're really, extremely different in a lot of ways, we're very similar too. People used to always ask us if we were twins, because we've always looked alike. We both have a giant soft spot for old people. We get along with adults more than we do with kids our own age sometimes. Teachers love us. We're both good at math (except maybe that's not obvious based on my calculus grade this semester...). We both love to be outside. We love dogs and hate cats.  We have the same sense of humor. We like a lot of the same music. We've both played soccer and loved it...but really that one doesn't count because I stink at soccer now and am really just a wanna-be. We like to hike. We laugh at our parents and love them at the same time. We can talk for hours and still have things to talk about. My favorite memories of Daniel are the times that he would come into my room, close the door, sit on the ground and we would talk about everything under the sun. Sometimes our mom would come in to tell us to go to bed, so he'd go back to his own room for a little while, but he'd always come back so we could finish our conversation. We've shared some pretty horrible moments together, too. Like when I had to pick him up somewhere (multiple times, mind you) because he was too drunk to get home, or when we found out my dad had cancer. We've cried together, yelled at each other, and laughed with each other. He came to my lacrosse games, and I was the loudest fan on the sidelines at his soccer games. It's hardest for me to be away from him. As much as I love my parents, it's just so much harder sometimes to know that at school I'm so far away from him. That's what makes our little reunions so sweet. 

The greatest memory of my handsome little brother and I that I have to share right now is when we climbed our first Fourteener together over the summer. We promised each other that we would make time to do it, but it didn't end up happening until the second to last weekend of summer.  August 4, 2012. That was our day. It was a great day, let me tell ya. I have to say, despite all of the hiking I had done all summer long, I was not prepared for how hard that hike was going to be. My brother and I had done an 8 mile hike just a month before, so I thought I was set for life. But this 3,000 ft climb was pretty intense. My brother beat me by about 10 minutes, but he waited for me at the bottom of the rock climbing part. That was the best part - climbing up all of the huge rocks at the end, and really feeling like you were on some grand adventure. It was the greatest feeling in the world when we reached the top. I was so happy that I secretly cried a little bit - being at the top of Mt. Bierstadt in the midst of so many beautiful Colorado mountains with my best friend in the whole world. It was truly amazing. Hiking; brother. Two of my favorite things coming together in the most perfect way.

I'm just so happy to be here with my brother again. It's only for three weeks, but anything is good enough for me.