Lauren Lejeune

One of the greatest joys of my life is being a sister. 

Yes, sharing blood and having built-in buddies to argue with is a highlight of my life. I’m sure (and hope) a lot of people share the same sentiment about their siblings as I do, even if my luck of the draw was two brothers. As the middle child of the bunch, I have first hand knowledge of growing up in a house full of boys: screaming, fighting and more bruises than I can count. 

My childhood was a little different in some aspects. For one, my older brother Gavyn spent his summers with us in Wyoming and the rest of the year in Louisiana with his mom. I remember being so excited when it was finally time for Gavyn to come visit us. The first few weeks were pure sibling bliss, we were two peas in a pod having the time of our lives. What was left of our summer was spent at each other's throats. One time, Gavyn hit me across the back of the head with a baseball bat (on accident, he claims) and I promptly tried to smother him with a pillow.  

The older I got though, I found a new appreciation for Gavyn. The summer I graduated, he came and spent a few weeks with us. Gavyn stayed at my apartment, causing mayhem and making friends wherever he went, as custom for him. Now he’s a dad to the cutest little girl and we couldn’t be closer. 

On the flip side, my younger brother and I have an eight year age gap. I’m basically his other mother. All jokes here, but I do believe it set a different tone for our relationship than the one I had with Gavyn growing up. We didn’t play together the way Gavyn and I did. Rather, I spent a lot of time trying to make sure Jayce didn’t get into something that would kill him. I was a great babysitter, in recent years a co-conspirator. 

It’s strange watching Jayce grow up through a different lens. I’m not experiencing life with him at the same time or relatively the same age. I see him riding his bike down to the canal to go fishing once his school work is done, while I’m on my way back to an office for my 7 to 5. 

Have I mentioned how cool his childhood is? Homeschooled teenage boy who aces his classes and still has time to fish or ride his horse every single day. He ties and sells fly fishing flies, ropes and shows goats in the fair. I just watched him take down his first bull elk this past year, a memory not to be forgotten. 

I love that I get to follow him around to all of his activities. From the wrestling mats when he was younger, to baseball fields and the rodeo grounds. I pride myself on being a decent videographer and cheerleader, and I hope he would agree. 

As he gets older, I find myself a little baffled with how fast time flies. I still feel like he should be 5 years old, running around and just being a cute little squishball boy. He's not, not in the slightest. Jayce reminds me every single time I see him just how tall he’s getting as he makes me stand back to back with him to see if he’s any taller than I am. He JUST passed me in height, so I had to remind him that being 5-feet-3-inches was still pretty short. 

All in all, I think I got the best of both worlds as far as siblings go. Would I have enjoyed a sister? Sure, but they would not have taught me how to be tough, or what true patience really means. I wouldn’t have gotten to be as wild, or experience true brotherly love in all the ways I’ve been blessed to experience it thus far. 

Jayce will be on the road driving next year, watch out Powell.