You Don’t Know What You’ve Got ‘Til It’s Gone

Camila Yriberry
Sep 5, 2018 · 3 min read

There’s nothing better than having a big older brother. Yes, a big brother. That person whom you’ve probably fought with over the most useless and dumb reasons when you were 7 and he was 10. Or that person who would always try to make the best out of every awkward situation, making you smile and laugh uncontrollably like you never did with someone else, not even with your closest friends. Or that person who made you feel safe and was always there for you when you needed it the most.

There are not enough words to describe how much my brother means to me. He’s always been there for me, by my side. No like, literally by my side, since the day I was born and brought to my mother’s room he was right next to me. (I can even prove this to you, we have a picture together). Did I mention he’s… A MUSICIAN? Pretty cool, huh?

Although he may be 3 years older than me, we’ve basically been through the same things, together and separately. Starting off with school, we both went to Roosevelt from the early childhood years until 12th grade. (Except I’m still a junior and he’s a graduate). Or going on family trips and doing every single activity with him, or when we were younger and we both get yelled at by my mom for not putting our toys away after playing for hours together.

He’s always been a supportive brother that guided me and taught me how to make the right decisions in my middle school and most of my high school life based on his previous experiences. He would always find a way to bug me but at the same time cheer me up.

It’s all smiles and laughs until both of you grow up and you realize your brother is old enough to go to off to college and leave the place where both of you grew up together.

I will never forget the day he received his college acceptance. He was the happiest man on earth and I couldn’t feel prouder. My brother was finally able to study what he loves the most in Boston, Massachusetts. At first, I didn’t pay much attention because I knew there were about 7 months left before he would leave, so the thought vanished away.

Time went by and the day was getting closer. My family and I traveled with him to Boston to drop him off to college, and we spent a few days there. After what seemed like a lifetime of staying in the freezing, cold city, it was time for my mom, dad, and me to leave and fly back to Lima. I knew I would be seeing my brother soon, so I didn’t feel sad nor empty at that time. At first!

Saying goodbye is tough. And I don’t mean the “goodbye” when you leave your friend’s house knowing you’ll see them the next day at school. I mean that “goodbye” where you know that you won’t be seeing that person for a long time. It was basically a “see you later” but a “goodbye” at the same time. My brother was saying goodbye to the people he’s been living with for his whole life, goodbye to the place he lived in for his whole life, goodbye in general, because he was starting a new stage in his life where his home in Lima, Peru is no longer a home and turns into the place you stay at when you go and visit two times a year. The minute we stopped hugging, that’s when it hit me. I was feeling anguish and I suddenly couldn’t stop the tears from falling.

Getting home and seeing his empty room definitely made me feel sorrow. I didn’t know how much I would be missing him until the minute I got home. This made me realize how important it is to enjoy every single moment of every single day with the people you care for the most. You really don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Trust me, I’ve been through it and it is not nice, you don’t want to go through that.

We know what we have and how much it’s worth for us, yet we never think about what it would be like without it because we know we could never lose such thing, but then again that’s what we think, and life can always take a spin.