Every summer I look forward to sand between my toes, beach hair, and “No-Name Pie”—the best pecan-coconut pie on Long Beach Island. These are all things that come with being blessed with a big, loving family and a beach house. As Memorial Day weekend approaches every May, I can’t contain my excitement. Soon my whole family will be together: my parents, my two aunts and uncles, five cousins, and the best grandparents in the world. Although I see my cousins every single day of the year (they live around the corner from us at home) being together at the beach house is a whole different level of closeness (in a good way, of course). I get to share a room with my cousin/best friend Hannah, the only other girl cousin in my family.
Walking into our room for the first time at the start of the summer is the most blissful feeling the world. I can barely explain how happy it makes me seeing our clean room for the first time all year, and knowing so many more memories will be made at this house once again. Recently Hannah and I decided our room would be better with one big bed to share, rather than two stiff twin beds. Naturally, being the creative minds that we are, we decided to push our beds together, it was the size of a king bed, and one of the best ideas we’ve ever had. We get to cuddle all the time now! A couple years ago our grandfather randomly asked me to paint a mural inside our outdoor shower, because he will not let go of that fact that I was into art in middle school. I didn’t question this task at all, I mean, grandpa knows best. Hannah I immediately got to work on what we should paint. We couldn’t think of anything at first, we were having artists block! That night at dinner at “Mud City”, our family’s favorite restaurant down the shore, inspiration struck. The kids’ menu at the “Mud City” had drawings of cute sea creatures all over it. I folded up a menu and took it back to the house with me. I would use the cute drawings on the menu for our mural, it was perfect. With a few adjustments and hours of drawing and painting, the shower mural was complete. With the help of my mom, Hannah, and my little cousin Alex, we made our shower look beautiful. Now every time we have a guest at the beach house, my grandfather makes sure they get a look at our painting. I can truly say that I will forever be proud of our hard work on that shower mural. That mural has been through thick and thin, it survived Sandy in 2012, not a single piece of paint chipped off! I feel so blessed that I have cousins that I can call my best friends. Hannah is like the sister I never had, and her brother Jesse is the twin brother I never had. Everyone at our high school was envious of my close relationship with Hannah, they would always say, “Wow I wish I was that close with my cousin, I never even see them.” And it would just remind me how lucky I am to have Hannah and Jesse in my life. Growing up with close cousins has been a huge part of my life and has shaped me to be the person I am today. If I didn’t have Hannah to guide me and be my best friend, I don’t know where I would be today. |