Moving In

When I moved up to College Station for the first time, I was a bit nervous but mostly excited. This was my chance to get away from my parents and strike out on my own, at least for a little while. I was truly independent; I would be my own man. In my naivete, I belatedly realized that I wasn’t fully ready for the experience. I didn’t do a good job taking care of my business in college, as I mentioned before. As a result, I look back on those days somewhat regretfully. By contrast, my brother is much more responsible than I am, at least when it comes to schoolwork. Still, I know that moving into a new area by yourself can be very difficult, so when I heard that my brother got a new job in Dallas, I decided to help him out in any way I could. After all, what are brothers for?

As soon as my brother found an apartment in Dallas, he decided to move his things there. I remember him coming home with pain in his legs, complaining about all the things he had to pack and unpack and move back and forth. I knew that if he didn’t have me around, he wouldn’t be able to work as well. If he was too busy adjusting to his new life, he’d be unable to make a good impression at work. I also knew that Braden would probably be lonely by himself if he didn’t have someone to help him adjust to Dallas. With these reasons in mind, I insisted on helping him.

That’s why, for these past few days, I’ve been helping my brother move into his new apartment. We started last Friday, helping pack up the various entertainment media, furniture, other such things into a big U-Haul truck. We managed to pack them all in tightly and neatly thanks to my Aunt Karen and Uncle Eddie. My uncle is a football coach, which made his family’s life nomadic. Having to move around a lot made them packing machines capable of doing several days’ worth of packing in one night. Sadly, they didn’t come with us to unload. We definitely could’ve used their help.

Riding with my dad in the U-Haul truck wasn’t a pleasant experience. Sure, sitting inside the vehicle was physically comfortable, but riding in big cars or trucks always made me nervous. Riding in a car always worried me because of the high likelihood of there being an accident. Larger cars made it worse because of how clumsy they felt. When a big vehicle builds up momentum, it’s harder to apply the brakes. Thankfully, we made it to Dallas without incident, but we had to work upon arriving at the apartment. We set to work unloading Braden’s stuff into his apartment. The summer heat and the nasty-smelling hallways (they had used some kind of chemical disinfectant recently) made the experience as unpleasant as the drive, if in a different way.

Still, the moving process wasn’t all bad. We had a few nice working men from U-Haul help us out. They were rather causal and joyful despite being tired after a long day’s work. It took us around three hours to unload everything from all the cars into Braden’s apartment. We were stressed out and exhausted at the end of the whole thing, yet we weren’t done. Knowing I had more work to do didn’t fill me with joy, but I knew that I had to help my brother out. After all, it isn’t every day that one packs up and leaves the people and places they knew behind. I had to help him with that.

On Sunday, we spent nearly all day working and cleaning. Early in the morning, we visited the local Church, which had some very nice singers. After Church, Mom and Dad had left, leaving only my brother and me. However, my task was only just beginning.

On Monday, we set up a television stand, some assembly required the box read. It was tough work, especially for my brother, as we tried to fill in all of the different holes in the wooden apparatus with different screws and plugs. It reminded me of when I set up my bookshelf, only much, much more complicated. The boxes laid about the floor, stacked on top of each other. There were so many that they blocked up the hallways, trapping us in the small living room.

Tuesday was more of a lazy day. The two of us together were able to get several days’ worth of work done in three days. I felt rather “blah” that day myself, so we binge-watched some television shows together on that day. Even though we both had our responsibilities in the future, for now, we could rest. I think finding time for leisure is an important part of being an adult, after all, and I think Braden has plenty of ways to pass the time.

Yesterday, my brother and I hit the town to see what Dallas has to offer in terms of food and fun. I’ve been researching places to eat that are in the area, and we found a small burger place that was willing to serve burgers that didn’t have eggs in them – Sky Rocket Burger. We also looked for some chairs so that we could eat at the apartment’s bar/island and installed some shelves to put the things Braden brought from College Station.

Braden and I had a hard time putting together the different furniture. At best, the experience of building it strained our hands trying to fit together the pieces and bent our backs trying to lean over in odd directions trying to fit the pieces together. At worst, we found the task about as futile as fitting a round peg in a square hole. Braden did not appreciate the trouble the furniture gave him as he put it together. He eventually gave up on the impenetrable instructions and decided to do things his way, which somehow worked (disclaimer: please follow the instructions the best you can and not my brother’s example. It usually doesn’t work out as well as it does for him).

Overall, we’ve been working very hard on Braden’s new apartment. It’s been a bit rough, but I think that he will do very well and I’m very happy that he gets to live on his own, working at his new job. That said, it’s not as though he’ll be entirely alone. Several of my cousins live in Dallas, including some of Aunt Karen and Uncle Eddie’s kids, and my parents are rather insistent on us calling every day. I get the feeling that we all are going to be driving up to Dallas much more frequently. For now, I’ll enjoy staying with my brother and helping him adjust to his new life as an independent adult. Seeing him work gives me something to aim at, after all.