Cousins

Rachel, my ex-student, who was my flower girl, had this up on Facebook. When I read it, it hit the nail on the head! One of my best friends is my cousin. I call her Monster privately. Of all my cousins, I guess we're the closest. We've seen each other's highs and lows. We have an unique friendship. We always pick up where we left off and we're fiercely protective of each other and importantly, we've never judged each other but rather stand by each other. I remember I've called her when the going got tough and I needed someone to call to and she was all ready to listen. Thanks Monster for loving me. It means a lot to me. And yes, she was my bridesmaid too.

I've always thought that everyone is close to their cousins. I used to think that it was natural for people to hang out and call their cousins best friends. But guess I was sorely wrong. Apparently some people hardly ever hang out with their cousins. Some people see their cousins once in a while, once in a year or maybe hardly ever. But for the Sims and the Lims (dad's sisters's kids), we grew up together and it was very different.

From a very young age, we used to play and hang out from babies. And even when 2 Sims left at a very young age to Manila, we still hung out when they visited Spore over summer. And to this day, I still see the 2 Sims when I visit America and would often stay with one Sim and make a side trip to see the other Sim. And I've another girl Sim living in LA. We used to live next block to each other and basically we grew up with each other. She's another cousin who lives abroad and whenever I'm in States, we make time to catch up. We try to co-ordinate our trips back to Singapore but sometimes we miss each other by just days. Yup, going to miss her by days this Christmas.

There's more cousins that I could write and talk about. I love them all. And I'm very thankful that my parents and my uncles and aunties have made a conscious effort to make or let us hang out when we were kids. And it was those fun play sessions that our friendships started and cemented and now, I call my cousins friends. I've the same hopes of Ba Ba and JC and my other nieces and nephews from my cousins and future kids that my sisters, my cousins or I might have. I want them to have the same friendships and experiences as us. Love you cousins!