It is few times in your life that nostalgia takes its full affect on you, and I have come to realize that one of its greatest weapons is the higher education-college. And I’m not even the one enrolling.

My brother is 5 ½ years older than me. All my life, my brother was bigger, stronger, smarter, and better than me. I used to spend my younger days scheming ways that I could outsmart him and prove that I was more than a mere five-year-old. Of course, I was a five-year-old, and he could easily get to me with the simplest of reverse psychology. Pokémon, Yug-Hi-Ho, and a number of other games during our fun babysitting sessions, all won by my big bro. My brother was also more popular than me. However, he had access to an entire grade, not just a 1st grade class, but still. He always was out with his friends, had them over. In grade school, mostly for cap guns, paintballing, and videogames. As he and I grew up, however, they became more of a bonding experience than ever, especially when his senior year came. I think he came to realize that he was going to have to part with his Hinsdale life, family and friends, to embark on his college journey at the University of Iowa. So he began to appreciate the bond he had with his friends, and brothers, The Power Nine.

Will (my brother), Jad, Zach, Chris, Eddie, Luke, Kazer, Dan, and Woodle. Nine friends, together from elementary and middle school, to their last days of senior year. I feel as if I was like the bystander behind the Plexiglass- I was able to catch glimpses of them, growing up and growing closer, but I never really interacted. So to the outside eye, they were just guys. Hanging out, doing whatever it is guys do (I’m a girl, so I really don’t have any experience). But I realized that they had bonded together over some of the toughest years of their lives, years that I haven’t even begun yet. They were together to find themselves, and found that they were still, and always will be, friends, brothers--The Power Nine.

So in the final days of summer, when everyone is packing up stuff for college, last minute storage trips to the Container Store, and saying goodbye to friends and loved ones, it felt as if the major chapter of their lives, the only one they’ve ever none, is ending. They all were scattering around the country, from the far western Washington, to the southern Mizzou, and they wouldn’t see each other more than the 2 or 3 breaks until the next summer. I’d like to think that they weren’t just saying goodbye, they were saying good luck, and when you get back, no matter how different we’ve become or the new things we’ve discovered about ourselves, we’ll pick up where we left off-always. Of course, they’re guys, so a ‘See you at Thanksgiving’ is the average farewell. But, as another way of saying this, the guys decided to make one final tribute to their lives together, and the lives they are about to live before them. When you see it, you realize the way they’ve all grown up, and that they’re all going to be okay. As a sister, I know that my big brother, the one that could do anything, will love college, and will be able to keep the bonds with his family. His parents, his sister, and his brothers. The Power Nine.