Unexpected Realizations by Kashvi

Unexpected Realizations by Kashvi - November 2019 Scholarship Essay

I hear a blunt thud on the hotel floor and I do my best to try and hope that it is not what I think it is…
”Wake up Bozos,” says my dad in his groggy morning voice. I refuse to listen and try my best to hide myself from him but he opens the curtains and jets the blanket off from on top of me. I look over at my mom who is still asleep but beginning to wake up and my brother who has initiated turtle mode aka pulling the covers over his head so that his sleep is not disturbed anymore than it has been. I shuffle my feet over to the bathroom and take a look at myself and I look dreadful. I have little eye boogers in my eyes and my hair is going its third day without being washed. I go back outside and gather my clothes but my mom interrupts me,
“It’s raining today, wear your jacket.” I groan because now I have to change my entire outfit and I finally chose this mint green shirt that made me feel like a third grader, but at this point I didn’t even care that much. My brother, who’s a genius at navigating maps took us from the hotel to our first attraction which was a graveyard for sorts. My dad got slightly upset because he didn’t understand what he was doing there, after all he didn’t travel across the world to look at a random graveyard. My dad began blaming my brother for this mishap, and eventually they got in a full blown argument and my dad told my brother to go sit down while we figure out what to do. Once we found an attraction that was walking distance I told my brother to get up but he was feeling like a two year old and decided to start throwing a temper tantrum.
“I’m not going anywhere. I don't even want to go there. You guys go finish it I’m not going anywhere.”
My dad is already annoyed, so he lets it go and shrugs it off. My mom repeats to my brother at least 12 times that he was not to move anywhere and he says okay. We leave and we realize we can’t leave a kid all alone like that in a foreign country, so we headed back. We are all astonished, because there was no one sitting on the bench where we left him. There was a police station conveniently right next to where he was sitting before. My dad goes inside and asks if they have seen him and before you know it, there is a city wide search going on for my brother. The US embassy sends someone down to talk to my dad, meanwhile me and my mom are a complete and utter mess crying and frantically praying for God to please give me my brother back and to bring him back safe. It starts pouring rain, and to me in my 7th grader head I figured that this was a sign of bad luck and that there was no way we were going to find him, I panic even more and start crying harder, because the brother I barely talk to, who I fight with all the time, who keeps me company even when I’m all alone, he was gone. I had no idea how much I loved him til I lost him. Despite all the fights and hair pulling, I was dumbfounded that I actually felt empty with him gone. Suddenly there’s a call from the hotel, saying that a kid came up to reception asking for the key to our room. My mother, father and I were all sitting in a Czech Republic cop car with remarks of relief on our faces. We run to the room and there he is laying down on his bed with a box of jaffa cakes watching a minecraft video. I break down and go to hug him, and realize that truly is my other half and my life would be incomplete without him.