I've been thinking a lot lately about siblings. Not just my own, but the idea of siblings as a whole. I was thinking how there is no one in the world more closely related to you, biologically, than your siblings. I mean, you only share half of your makeup with each of your parents. And when you have children, you only share half of your makeup with them. But your siblings contain the same makeup as you. I think that's pretty phenomenal.

I think it's important to have a good relationship with your siblings. A lot of times, when you're younger, there's this sibling rivalry that kind of dominates the relationship. But as you get older, I think it's important to move past that and to build a strong bond.

When we were younger, my siblings and I spent a lot of time hanging out together. We moved twice within less than a year when I was 9. Anyone that has moved at that age knows how tiring and trying it is to be the new kid and really find some good friends. I had to do that twice in such a short period of time and it was definitely not fun. In that time, I would hang out a lot with my brother and sister. As I got more used to the area and made more friends, especially in high school, we didn't really hang out as much.

Once I hit college, my sister hit high school. She grew up a lot, found her personality, and her and I started really becoming friends. It wasn't like we would hang out because it was convenient, we would hang out because we enjoyed it. As my brother started growing up and found his personality, we started hanging out with him too. We've found that our personalities and likes are all pretty similar, but we also have unique qualities.

So really, I've been thinking a lot about how blessed I am to have such good relationship with my brother and my sister. I think it's sad that there are so many people that are just missing out on that part of life. For a lot of people, a sibling is just someone that they have to deal with. I'm glad that, for me, a sibling is someone I get to deal with.

I pray that my relationship with my brother and my sister will continue to grow and remain strong throughout the rest of our lives. I would hate to lose connection with the two people who are technically the two people closest to me in the world.

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Well, things are coming along. Before I graduated, I had 3 major immediate post-graduation goals, and two of those are accomplished:

1. Get a job
2. Get an apartment
3. Get more involved with church

The job is going really well. I like that it's laid back, I like that I get to do the stuff I get to do, and I like the people that I get to work with. It's cool that in an entry level position, I get to work directly with the CEO and he genuinely has an interest in my thoughts and ideas. I enjoy going into work each day.

The apartment is coming together, as well. Ryan and I moved in over the weekend. I think we pretty much have everything unpacked and put away. The only thing we still really need is a couch, but hopefully I'll be taking care of that this week. So far, we haven't really run into any problems. This is the first time Ryan has lived on his own, so the experience may be a little different for him. I've been out on my own for almost 4 years now, so I'm used to everything. I don't foresee us having any problems living together.

So my last immediate post-graduation goal is to get more involved at church. I've been really trying this past year to do that, but being so far away from my home church really made it difficult. I'm now a lot closer, so I think things will finally be able to work out. I'm not really sure what areas I'll be involved, but I'm sure I can find a need.

I'm hoping that being out of school and having a more structured schedule will allow me to do a lot of the things I haven't been able to do the last four years. I'm hoping I'll have more time to play guitar and read. I'm also hoping I'll have more time to go hiking. I've been thinking about getting a new bike and maybe doing some more bike riding. Just the things I couldn't (or didn't) fit into my schedule during school.

It's weird that I don't have anything big to look forward to now. In high school, I looked forward to college. In college, I looked forward to new semesters, graduation, and getting a job. Now, I have a job and I'm done with school, so it just feels like there isn't anything big to look forward to. I'm fine with that for the time being. It's nice to get into some stability. I just don't want to get too comfortable doing the same thing day after day, week after week.

If you're completely comfortable with your life, you're probably not living it to the fullest.

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