Remember That One Time? #1

***In the tradition of the Thanksgiving Season I have decided to start a series of posts entitled "Remember that one time." (If you don't get the Nacho Libre reference I think you should watch it again)
I hope that by doing this you will see a few reasons or rather PEOPLE that I have to be grateful for this time of year. They will just be little snippets, but I hope they will serve their purpose.***

Dear Cal,

Do you remember that one time in high school when you heard me crying in my room at night and came in to see what was wrong?

I was of course crying about a boy who had recently demolished my heart by choosing a very beautiful and preferable best friend over me. I think I may have said embarrassing phrases like: "Why wouldn't he like her over me?!? She's pretty, she's smart, she's funny!!! and I'm just ugly and stupid and boring!"

You didn't laugh.

You didn't tell me I was being stupid.

You listened, and then went over to my shelves and got out my yearbook.

I was wondering what you were doing as you started to flip through the pages. Then you started to say things like "Well I think you are prettier than her." Pointing to some random girl on the page.

Before long we had looked at every single girl in my class debating and talking about each... what the boys in my class thought of them, what the boys in your class thought of them etc. You did your absolute best to convince me that I was

"one of the top ten prettiest girls in my class."

Although I didn't believe you, I certainly wanted to, and I did walk away from the conversation tear free and feeling much better about myself.

You don't know what that meant to an incredibly insecure teenage girl. Not quite comfortable in my own skin yet, I was forever thinking people thought I was ugly and boring compared to my amazing friends (truly I did have such beautiful and amazing friends in high school!), but THAT night I remember feeling pretty as I fell asleep because my big cool brother said so.

Some people might think that is very superficial, and that maybe I should have been focussing on other, more important things, but to a teenage girl with a teenage heart my big brother saved the day, and I learned again something that you have taught me on many occasions since: My brother will always be looking out for me, and will always want to stop the tears from flowing, because that's what a good big brother does.

And I have a VERY good big brother. The best.