Thursdays with Thomas Holmes

With Endings Come New Beginnings

I am almost at the far end of the line of about 300 people wearing the same thing: an Oxford cap and a blue silky gown. 

I saw my dad and my sister in the middle of the sea of seated crowd, my dad caught my eye and gestured for me to smile as he lifts his camera. 

I put my arm around my cousin Harper who is a little shorter than I am with long black hair and baby blue eyes that has tears waiting to fall from them again. She's a very pretty girl, my cousin, but a big big cryer.

"I can't believe we did it!" she shouts with excitement.

"yeah, me too." I smile back. 

The music starts playing in the background as I close my eyes. 

Suddenly, it was 1995 again. My dad was sitted on the couch watching Saturday Night Live while my older sister is in the kitchen making popcorn and smoothies.

This is one of our Saturday night rituals in our small family of three.

My dad is a big comedy fan while my sister and I just loves to stay up late whenever we can, and maybe watching sketch comedy isn't so bad but we love egging our dad with our fake disdain for everything he likes. 

It's one of me and my sister's thing. We would always laugh and clown him a bit and my dad would just give up with a long exhale, knowing that we just love messing with him even in an early age.

I heard my sister mutter something about the popcorn in our kitchen and looked at my dad who was just laughing at this sketch called Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer.

I sat in our velvet living room carpet making the final touches at the back of my coloring pad.

"Dad, I'm done can you make the voices again?" I said scratching my head while looking up at my father.

My sister ran to the living room with a tray of our popcorn and smoothies.

"Hold up, I want to do the voices too!" She said barely making it in the living room without spilling anything.

I gave my dad the coloring pad. There were animals covered in different colors inside a big ship with three people with them.

He turned over the pad and started reading what I wrote in the back. My sister sat down next to him and did the voice of the girl in the story.

This is our highlight of every week. My dad sitting down watching his favorite show, my sister likes taking care of everyone in the house, and I like writing stories at the back of my coloring pads and books especially when my dad and my sister read them aloud with funny voices and weird gestures.

"You're a great writer" My dad will always say when they finish reading my story.

I smile and join them in the small couch, sipping our smoothies and fighting over popcorn. 

My thoughts came back to the present when they called out my cousin's name. She walked in front of the stage and I can see it in her teary eyes how happy she is as she poses for a picture while holding her diploma that I know she worked so hard for. 

Finally, she walked down the stage and I felt all the nerves go inside my body. The next name that will be called is mine: