The Five, The Library, and The Pear Tree

                                                           Pictured above: The five (2019)

    Growing up with four other people doesn't sound fun but at the age of 24, I now start to realize growing up with four other people was better yet grand or magnificent I should say. I want to take this story back to the year 2011, my family lived in Mt. Healthy at the time on Meredith Drive. We lived in a two-floor townhouse, 3 bedrooms, and an unfinished basement just enough space to house 7 people. Our family consisted of my mother, grandmother, my two sisters Deja and Eiona, my two brothers D.J. and Jamir and of course me. At the time I didn't realize how good life was, I was in the fifth grade…I guess you can say I just hadn't yet discovered what being grateful was yet. Now I know gratefulness is that warm feeling I tend to feel in the back of my chest that radiates through my back. Gratefulness is knowing you don't have what exactly you want but realizing that you have everything you need on your journey. During this time, I can now say my siblings were all I needed, four people to tell stories with, confide in, lean on, and most importantly go on adventures with. 

    My siblings and I always loved adventure, like the days when we snuck to the creek to explore and skate on ice, or the one time Deja got stuck on the tree branch to cross the creek, or maybe even that onetime when Jamir got lost but turns out he was just at his friend's house. We always had something going on or something to do up our sleeves, now that I'm older and my siblings and I spend less time together... I wish I could go back in time. One of my favorite and constant memories of us five was our weekly walks to the Mt. Healthy library. Growing up we had a single mother, so giving every kid a few dollars wasn't possible for my mom instead of each person receiving multiple dollars, she gave each of us one. Each time before we embarked on our journey to the library we stopped at Family Dollar in hilltop plaza, now this was when everything was actually about a dollar. And instead of fighting or bickering about how each person spent their dollar we always would band together to take our single dollars and combine them, assigning each person a duty…one we all took too seriously. One sibling would volunteer to get a big pack of cookies, another sibling would volunteer to get a bag of candy, followed by another sibling that would grab a 6 pack of Kool-Aid jammers and the other two dollars were used to buy two snacks of all our choosing. After buying the items not even ten footsteps away from the store we always would start dividing the snacks up, giving everyone their share and we always were left with more to split. As I write this as an adult I realize my siblings and I learned to work together early on in life, before egos could ever get in the way, before personal lives would develop, we learned we were all each other had. Crazy how much five single dollars will show you. 

    Now the walk to the library was a little long from our house but we never paid it any mind, conversation carried our footsteps on, laughs propelled us forward and smiles were apparent on the sidewalk from us five for anyone to see. Happiness was something I never knew I felt in these moments but I knew I felt something…. now I know that happiness was the very feeling I felt. No pressure from life, no work assignments pending, just five hearts beating together living day by day waiting for the next move. The next move on our walk was one that I can say we all adored, after walking past United Dairy Farmers and CVS right before you got to the library there was a house on the right-hand side, now this wasn't any old house because there was a special feeling when you arrived to it but also a treat that we all would anticipate. This particular house had a pear tree! Every time we walked past and it had fruit we would pick as many as we could and take them home, happy to show our mom and grandmother and even happier that we got to feast on a few during the rest of the walk to the library. The library was always the next stop on our adventure, after all the snacks and pears it was time to arrive at our destination. As we all walked into the library the librarian would always greet us with a smile, and then we went our separate ways until it was time to walk back.  A reservation for Deja, another for Eiona, a book or two for D.J. and Jamir he just loved it all. 

    As I close this story out, I want to thank my siblings for taking those walks with me to the library, I want to thank my siblings for being my first friends, and I want to thank my siblings for being my guiding light whether day or night. To have four souls that have your back no matter what is a privilege in this world. Having this memory of us walking to the library and pear tree is a core memory of mine, I encourage anyone reading to dig those memories out of your own mind. Despite your trauma and tribulations what good memories do you have? What faces gave you light to see another day? What inspired you to keep carrying on? For me it was my four siblings, now I want you to think about your reason. 

Always and always cheers to the five, the library, and the pear tree. I love you four for life & all of eternity.