Growing up I’ve always been around a lot of my family, but as I got older, I watched everyone drift away, regardless of the pandemic. I was always closer to my mom’s side of the family; my dad’s side wasn’t always around except for my aunts. My mom’s family would always come around for parties and I really enjoyed seeing everyone being happy and spending time together and it’s something you rarely see nowadays. It was also hard finally getting old enough to hang out with them and nobody really being around for it. I was always really left out because I was younger than all my cousins and anyone in my family, my brother was always with them, and it made me really sad because I always felt like a burden or a bother. I remember my mom’s sister always throwing 4th of July parties in her home in Connecticut, with her big backyard that had forest behind it, which used to scare me, especially when they would force everyone to watch horror movies that were in the woods. They would throw these parties for the fireworks and my grandpa’s birthday, and it was such a time to remember, because now it’s only a cake at my house, some drinks and balloons and music, and only family that lives near, which to my convenience is my uncle, grandparents, and my brother. Even then I wouldn’t always see my cousins because of their stepfather who wouldn’t let my aunt and them come over, we would always have to go to Connecticut to see them, which I thought at the time wasn’t bad because I like their house and the trip there. Today, I still rarely see my cousins, they are all grown up now, I’m right behind them, my brother is there but a little oblivious, and I’m only now really having some actual connections to my close family. It’s sad to say because I always thought I would get older and finally hang out with everyone that would attend, and now everyone is so far away.
Distance comes closer when you get older and I completely agree with you. You don’t realize when you’re young that eventually you’ll grow out of family because of the distance. As I growing the distance was there I just was to happy in the moment to realize until I did notice. There was a time I was at a family gathering and everything just hit me once I realized that every family gathering became smaller and smaller and less family members. This is the point in your life in which you start reminiscing the family memories and how fun things were when u were younger.