BSC, WWF, and Getting Older
By: Red Velvet
My cousin and his fiance recently asked me to be a bridesmaid in the wedding party. It’s funny, when they said they wanted to talk to me, I assumed they were just going to ask me to bake cupcakes for their engagement party. Being a bridesmaid didn’t even cross my mind. But I accepted of course (and I wasn’t totally off… they do want me to bake too).
Now I’m officially a part of the wedding party and while I haven’t had to do anything yet, I have listened to them talk about their plans. The venue, photographers, wedding dresses, looking for an apartment. And if I’m going to be completely honest - it’s weird. I’m happy for him though, I really am. This girl is perfect for him (believe me, I’ve watched him go through his fair share of “winners”). But I just can’t believe he’s actually getting married and I can’t help feeling a little sad too. Not that I wish I was getting married or anything. But it’s more of a — this is it, we’re really growing up — kind of thing.
The groom/my cousin and I grew up together. Of all our cousins, we’re the only two who are the same age (we’re 21 days apart). A good chunk of my childhood was spent running around with him.
We played Nintendo in the basement almost every day (when we fought, he’d hide all the games). We were obsessed with scaring ourselves silly so we’d lock ourselves in the bathroom and try to call on “Bloody Mary”, tell ghost stories, play hide & seek in the dark with our other cousins and neighbors (by the way, I was the lone girl in this sea of 7 boys). He read a Baby-Sitter’s Club book to understand my fascination with them (it was “Kristy and the Walking Disaster” and he put a book cover on it to avoid getting made fun of). He made me play roller hockey with him. We watched WWF together. I tricked him into letting me paint his nails blue (his mom loved that).
Then we got older. We went to high school, I went off to college. But we stayed as close as ever. I’d come home during my breaks and we’d hang out all the time. Baking, renting movies and going to the mall. It wasn’t until he started having serious girlfriends that we started to drift apart. He’s one of those guys who tends to revolve their lives around their significant other and drop everyone else. We’re still close in a way but not like we used to be. I guess that’s why I didn’t expect to be in his wedding party. We haven’t been those two inseparable kids (against all the adults) in a really long time.
With all the joy that comes with watching someone you love get married, it also feels like another door of my childhood is closing. It’s so easy to forget how old we are, especially when we’re just hanging out at my house, playing board games and watching TV. We even refer to our parents as the adults and us as the kids. But we really have grown up and with half of us in the wedding party (no seriously) and celebrating this new chapter of his life together - maybe this is more of a beginning than the ending I keep thinking it is.
