The Baby's Flown the Coop

     So today my brother officially left for college. I didn't go with him to move his stuff into his dorm
because it's a seven hour round trip and I had a bunch of stuff to do, plus watch Maggie. I'll get a chance to see his room and everything when we go up to visit (whenever that may be). My mom said his roommate seemed really nice, so that's good. I know TJ is totally out of his comfort zone, but I think it's good for him.

     I set my alarm for 7:30 this morning so that I would have a chance to say goodbye, but either I turned it off without waking up or I forgot to set it, I don't know, either way I didn't wake up, but TJ came into my room around 8 and was like "Hey, we're leaving" and I jumped out of bed and gave him a hug and said bye and OH MY GOSH THE WORLD'S ENDING he hugged me back. Granted, it was a lame hug, but still a hug. 

     Now that he's gone my parents will be spending way less money on food. But instead they're paying for college... Not quite a fair trade off. 

     Today I drove stick shift all the way from the elementary school to the high school and back home. With my mom. I felt very accomplished. And I vacuumed and cleaned the car so that it looks nice and clean. My brother never once cleaned it. Boys. 

     It feels very weird, being the oldest one in the house. Like, I'm getting all of these responsibilities and privileges but I feel like I'm still just a little kid and I'm just pretending and everyone's playing along. Like, I should not be going into my junior year of high school. I should not be helping freshman get "oriented". I was a freshman yesterday! That's how it feels, at least. 

     It's just really, really weird. But not all together unpleasant. 

     I started reading Stargirl last night and it's even better than I remembered. I want to be Stargirl. I think that Jerry Spinelli is a really great author. He "gets" teens without condescending to them. And he can write as both a boy and a girl flawlessly. That's not easy.
     My dad just told me that my brother is out playing basketball with some guys, which both shocks me and makes me very happy. Maybe he'll surprise us all.

Day 269 Song Recommendation: "Intro" by the xx. This is a two minute long song, in a six minute long video, so obviously it repeats a few times, but I loved the video quality and cinematography, so enjoy.
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-SE Wagner