Memoir

This moment had changed the way I viewed my family in many ways. In This moment in my lifetime I learned something new that made me feel a different way towards the ones that I call family. I got to see a different perspective about one of my cousins. These moments that are clear in my memory happened throughout the years of my life. I can remember these memories very easily and they are a big part of my life.
This story all started when I was growing up In my pre-teen years. I grew up in a family where my cousins were either too old or too young so I almost had to adjust to these age gaps. As I was growing up my cousins had a lot of years in between them and me. One of my cousins, named Tyler, has an eight year different to me. He was the cousin that I was closest too. 
As most older cousins would do, they would hang out, play with, and go on adventures with and spend time with the younger cousins at family gatherings, vacations, and dinner. This is what my cousin Tyler did with me. At these family gatherings he would hang out with me and my younger brother and bike, go hiking, swim, and just spend time together. I learned many new ideas, I got advice, and I just had an overall good time. This was really fun for me because he was a big role model for me and I wanted to be just like him.
My cousin Tyler was about my age , fifteen, now when I was in elementary school.  Tyler lives in Bellingham, Massachusetts near me. He plays hockey and rides motocross. As I got older I wanted to be like him so I started to ride dirtbikes with my brother, my dad, and him and do the things he did, wear the cloths he wore, and act like him. At family events and vacations I would look forward to seeing him and hanging out with him.
This was very enjoyable to me, but as I got to the beginning of my teen and he got to his college years, him and I kind of separated in our relationship as cousins a little bit because of the different ages. We would still do the things that we did in the past and we still had fun with it, but he started to do things that I couldn't do because of my age. Some of the things that he did that I couldn't are self explanatory, but some of the things I couldn't do were activities that required a certain age and activities that my Dad did not allow me to do. I would often be embarrassed or upset that I could not do these things that my cousin could do. I wished that I was older so I could do these activities.
Also now he could drive and bring his friends, on some family vacations and family camping trips he would bring his close friend. Since he brought his friend, he hung out with him more. They would sometimes do different things that I was not into so I would not be interested in doing. We still all got along but not as it used to be.
Another reason that this occurred was when I had to sell my dirt bikes because they were expensive to have and we stopped riding them because I was so busy with sports. I had to sell my dirtbikes because of my busy schedule which made me upset because it was what my cousin and I both had common interests in.  Looking back on this I wished we had still kept the dirt bikes because I have a lot of forest that I could easily access behind my house, it gave me a closer bond with my cousin, and they were fun to ride.
This went on for a good amount of time until we both got into racing and riding mountain bikes. This all started when he got his new mountain bike and I still had my old, rusty, and beaten up bike. I had heard all of the stories about him riding from my family that I soon got really interested in biking. I got to ride with him on trails near my house and I really enjoyed it. I eventually bought a great bike that I could use to do jumps, drops, and very steep downhills. This brought us closer than ever because now we both had something in common that we both loved to do. We are always talking about better bikes, new trails, and racing. Mostly every weekend now we go riding together and it makes a friendship better. We are still doing this today and it had changed my life and my bond with a close cousin.
These recent years have given me a new way to look at my family, especially my cousin, and to see them not only as family, but as people I can be comfortable with. Spending time with my cousin has also made me feel more mature and adult like. These moments in my lifetime had given me the different perspective on my family.