Over break, my family was sharing stories from the last time that we were able to all go on a trip over Christmas as a family. Due to sports and being in different schools, my brothers and I have always had different length breaks as well as a variety of practices and events we’ve needed to go to. We were talking about this because for the first time in five years, we’re able to go on a Christmas vacation with all five members of my family, my dad, mom, older and younger brother, and I. We were sharing stories from our last trip where we went to Utah to go skiing with some families of friends from where we used to live. My younger brother shared a story of how that was the first time he skied down a double black diamond and how much faster it felt to him. My mom told us how nice it was to see her three boys reconnecting with their friends from where we were born, as we hadn’t seen them in years. Hearing those stories made me think about my first time skiing down a double black diamond; like my younger brother, I too went down with my older brother and my dad, except in this case, I was one of the older brothers. Hearing my mom’s perspective made me realize that she could see how great it was to see my first friends and she could see how excited I was. She could see what I unknowingly knew, that these friends were my first nonfamily relationships and how strong that bond was even after not seeing each other for a long time.