Killing Two Birds with One Stone

The past few months have been hectic in my household. My parents brought three children into this world. My brother Jay being the oldest, me being the middle child and my sister Tara the youngest. It very rarely happens that all three of us have something to celebrate in such a small period of time, however this week, things changed. Also, just to clarify, I have nothing against birds! I’m animal friendly here at Buildadean. I wouldn’t kill them with one stone or two, or any stone for that matter, but it’s a fitting title. You’ll see why! 

Yesterday called for a day of celebration in my family. Not just for one person, but all of us really including my parents. Jay had his graduation from college, Tara received her Leaving Cert results a few days back and I was having a belated birthday. When I say belated, my birthday was in May. What do they call it again? Ah yes, middle child syndrome. It was only fair I wasn’t left out of this big family celebration. In my defence, I had a reason to join in on this extravaganza! 

It’s crazy to see how fast we are all growing up. Jay earned a degree in Mathamatical Science and also received a job offer in a banking company, which he obviously accepted. This was a relief for my parents, who were in two minds as to whether he would ever get a job due to his unique personality and ways of life. Jay is completely normal, don’t get me wrong, but at the same time a small bit different. A contradiction I know, but it makes sense to me. He has completed four years in college, earned an impressive degree and is about to set off into the world for good. It’s going to be a huge learning curve and shock to the system but he’ll survive. He always does! The graduation ceremony was yesterday, but only my parents were allowed go. Apparently the college has a lack of space and invites were scarce. I’m sure they were extremely proud when his name was called and he walked up to receive his degree wearing the extravagant gown each student is given. Obviously, everything didn’t go to plan. My parents were sitting up on a balcony, so when the rows of students came into the hall, they didn’t see Jay who was out of sight in the row directly underneath them. They were starting to get stressed because there was no sign of him. As the ceremony commenced, and names were being called out, they started to get even more worried. No sign of Jay and his name yet to be called. They genuinely thought he had ran away, in sheer fright. It’s something Jay would do. Disappear into no mans land, out of sight to the public eye. Needless to say, Jay was then called up and my parents were very much relieved. To make matters worse, he handed in his gown straight after the ceremony, which left my mother distraught. All she wanted was a picture with her baby boy, all grown up in his fancy college gown, but no. Jay doesn’t like photos and had to hand in his gown. Thankfully, he decided to take the moral high ground and retrieve his gown, to the delight of my mother who had the camera out in milliseconds of seeing him with it. As I’ve said, Jay is different.

 

Then there’s Tara. She’s also just had a huge stepping stone in her life. Receiving her Leaveing Certificate results and being accepted into the University of Limerick, the college both me and Jay attend/attended. Luckily for my parents, they never feared for Tara. We all knew she would get on well, things just seem to go her way. To be fair, she did work very hard, so everything she earned was well deserved. She’s going to study Criminal Justice. It wasn’t what she thought she’d be doing, having set her mind on nursing early on, only to just fall short of the points needed to earn a spot. It was a shock to her the first few days, but it always is when you don’t get what you first thought. After cooling down and thinking about her options, she realised she’s still in a very good spot with the chance to get a good degree and a secure,well paid job in the future .She now has her mind set on being a guard, and I’m not going to be one bit surprised when she gets it. It was also an added bonus for her that she got higher points than Jay, who used to tease her constantly about being a dumb blonde. It’s safe to say he can’t say that anymore! Her next concern is about getting a house or apartment near the college. Her social life is just as important after all. 

So, where does this leave me? Joining in on the celebration no doubt! And for good reason. My 21st birthday was at the end of May. Yes, you’re all thinking what I am. That’s three/four months ago. But I didn’t get a celebration unfortunately. I was living in Barcelona at the time, away from my family and friends. Obviously, I got phone calls and messages but it wasn’t the same thing. It was the first time I had been away from home properly and it just so happened that my biggest birthday to date was occurring in this period. We always planned to do something for it when I returned, and it landed perfectly on a two way celebration. What better way to enhance a two way celebration than adding an extra person. Me! Also, my parents saw it as killing two birds with one stone so it worked out ideally for them in the end. 

The main celebrations were directed at us, the children, but really it was for my parents too. They had managed to get all three of us into a good college, with good degrees on the horizon and a secure future to possibly look forward too. This was a celebration for the hard work and mental strength they’ve had to endure with us in their lives. It wasn’t easy, and things never really went according to plan, but we’re managing to persevere and show our parents that the effort they put in was not a waste. I think we make it hard from them to be proud of us at times, but this certainly made them proud to call us their children. It’s only going to go up from here! 

As for the actually celebration, we went for a meal in a restaurant in our local city. It was really nice and I will be writing a post on it tomorrow. So be sure to look out for it! 

Have you had anything to celebrate lately? Let me know in the comments below!