Tate, Tylor, and Cody

I have three cousins on my dad’s side of the family, Tylor, Takota (who we call Cody), and Tate. My sister and I often saw them when my aunt and uncle were together. Thirteen years ago split. My aunt took Tylor, Cody, and Tate to live up north. Since then, we hardly see them due to the seven hour driving distance between us.

My cousin, Tylor and I were really close growing up. He is six months older than me, so we were practically like twins. I would always ask my parents if Tylor could come over to play, and I was almost always told yes. When Tylor would come over, our parents would often find us in my play room or running around outside. Tylor and I were always together, whether if it was for special occasions like birthdays or the holidays, or if we just wanted to have someone over to play with.

For the past thirteen years I have not really had a relationship with Tylor. Since he lives so far away it is hard to hangout with him and try to rebuild our relationship. I still text him on his birthday to let him know I think about him, but there are hardly any words exchanged other than “thank you” and “you’re welcome.”

It really upsets me that I have such a strong relationship with my cousins on my mom’s side or the family, but not my dad’s. I know distance is a huge factor in this problem, which sucks, but I would like to at least try and have a conversation with Tylor, Cody, and Tate. If I am lucky, I see them once, maybe twice a year. I see them in February for the i-500 snowmobile race, and sometimes we will meet once during the summer for lunch. When my sister and I see our cousins, we don’t really know what to say. We hardly ever spend time with them, so when we do see them it is kind of awkward and we don’t know what is acceptable to talk about.

Last year, when Tylor and I graduated we went up north for his graduation party. He was busy talking to guests of course, but he actually set time aside to talk to me. I congratulated him on completing school. Graduation was a big thing for Tylor and I because we are the first ones on my dad’s side of the family to complete grade school. After talking for a while, our mother’s wanted to get a picture of us together, and then had our siblings jump in the picture as well. Living so far away from my cousins is definitely hard and I wish we had a stronger bond, but maybe someday, when we’re older and wiser we will be able to sit down and talk and feel awkward about our past…