So Worth It

We attended the annual Mom's-side-of-the-family reunion yesterday.  Her family has held this reunion for as long as I can remember, but I wouldn't use that as a gauge as to how many years it has actually taken place.  In my memory, her family got together frequently.  Those gatherings may have been the official reunion.  Or not.

When I was younger, I enjoyed going to the reunions to see my cousins...for the most part.  Some years I didn't want to go at all. The teenage years, for instance.  I love the family but I've never enjoyed a  crowd.  And it was a crowd.  The grandparents.  Nine kids.  Their spouses.  Twenty-eight first cousins.  And that's just Grandma's family. I felt lost and out of place for a couple of reasons: 1) I'm rather shy and quiet.  A conversationalist, I'm not.  2)  I've never been the thinnest cracker in the tube.  Never.  Anyone who has dealt with #2 will understand and know that it doesn't help with #1 AT ALL.  As the years have gone by, I've become a bit more comfortable with the reunion and enjoy seeing everyone, but I'm still a little quiet and tend to visit if visited with.  Not exactly a wallflower, but rather as if I were on a trellis.  I wander a bit, but stay rooted in my own comfort zone.  And like a Morning Glory, I open up a bit when the suns on me and close up when in the shadows.  Or maybe...oh, never mind.

This year I was president.  What???  I know.  Here's how that happened.  Last year marked the 150th year of this family being in Kansas.  We all got together two weeks earlier than normal and participated in the home town's old settler's day parade, took a tour of the land where the town they settled in was located, and held our usual meeting.  During this meeting, the President was trying to take care of business as the crowd of 100 chatted and I heard him ask, "Do you think we should vote on a president for next year?"  I said, somewhat louder than I normally would speak to be heard over the crowd, "Yes!"  What he had asked was, "Does anyone want to to be president next year?"  Aarghhh... 

As president, you stand in front of the group and run the show.  You can only imagine how much I was looking forward to being in that spotlight.  Ugh...all those eyes on me.  But I made it through the day.  Now here's where all this has been leading and was the best part of my very enjoyable day.

As we were totaling up the $300 plus we made on the white elephant auction, one of the relatives came up to me and said something like this, "I'm glad you're part of my family.  The "C" family, that is."  Well, where that came from, I don't know, but it made this Morning Glory feel as if a ray of sunshine had crossed her path.  "I'm glad I am, too.", I replied.