I was sitting down on the living room sofa, wishing the time would go slower or that I can go back in time, my brother was just a couple hours away from leaving to San Diego for Marine Corps boot camp. I didn’t know how to feel; one thing I did feel was that I had wasted my last hours with him. I was really angry at myself I just wish it wasn’t time for him to ship off yet. Out of all of us my mom was the saddest even though she didn’t show it at first, when we got to the recruiters office to drop my brother off she just broke down, and that shattered my heart too. I couldn’t see my mother like that it just hurt me so much and my dad was very calm with it but he also shed a couple tears I didn’t know if time was going to fly by or if it was going to seem like forever, but when we left him there and we came home we felt empty like I was sitting in the back seat by myself and I felt so empty.

Days went by and we didn’t hear from him we started getting letters in the mail from my brother 5 weeks into training. We were really happy to hear from him but it didn’t feel the same as seeing him in person or at least talking on the phone. Every day we would check the mail first thing when we got home, when we didn’t see a letter in there we would feel so sad and empty it was a disappointing moment. 3 weeks later I was expecting a call, I just knew the next time the phone rang it was going to be my brother, one Saturday afternoon right before we left for church the phone rang and I had this feeling that it was him. I checked the caller I.D. and the area code was from San Diego, my dad picked up and in the background all you heard was people talking and some yelling, I figured it was probably just some drill instructors, my dad hogged the telephone for about 3 and a half minutes. The phone was then passed onto my mom and they talked for a little while, after that I received the telephone and I just said “hello” with a crackly voice.

“hey what’s up” my brother responded. In my head I thought to myself what to say next or what to ask him but, before I knew it the conversation was over, his time had talking time had expired. I didn’t get to tell him how I have been or I didn’t know how he was doing it was a big stab to the heart, and all my dad said was sorry because he used up most of the time, but I guess it was ok.

4 weeks were left in his training and I just remembered counting down the days, on his graduation day he called again and told us he was on his way home we were so stoked my mom was very happy on one side but sad on the other because she knew that in ten days he would have to go back to California. My mom and I cleaned the house that entire day meanwhile my dad went to Seattle; I remember talking on the phone with him when he was on his was way over here from Seattle. It was good to know that he was with my dad, when I saw them pull up outside the first thing I did was give him a big hug and I told him that I was really proud of him. I’m not going to lie; I did shed a couple of tears. Then I saw my mom hug him and I just looked at them, my mom was finally complete. He looked like a new man with his uniform we talked for hours then his girlfriend Krystal came to say hi and she just cried and cried tears of joy.

We enjoyed our ten days together we went everywhere together, to the store to visit his friends, everywhere. The thing that sucked though was that the time that he was with us went by so quick, but my favorite memory of those ten days was when we went to my cousins wedding in Yakima. We had a great time together with family and friends my mom and dad were really happy too because we were all together again and it felt pretty good. 7 days later he left again because he had to report back in San Diego to begin his infantry training. When he left I knew that this journey would begin, once again.