I don’t believe the Mayans. 2012 can’t be the end of the world. Things just got good. Plus, Prince didn’t make a song about 2012. He did one on 1999 and that came and went without a wrinkle. Not even one dove cried.

2012 was the year that my sister gave birth to the first grandchild, I quit my job and started my own business, and my brother graduated from college. My mom, much like a room full of labradoodle puppies, is typically wired, bouncing from one topic to the next. One room to the next. One website to the next. But with her kids becoming an entrepreneur, a mother and a graduate in the same year, that woman doesn’t have one nerve left. 

This isn’t the first time my sibs and I have done this. A few years ago, I got a promotion, my sister got married and my brother moved to another state. All within months of each other. Prior to that, I moved to another state and my sister graduated from college, all within a 12-month period. I can’t remember what was going on with my brother at that time, but being the boy and the youngest, whatever it could have been, it was remarkable.

What is it about me, my sister and brother that makes these events all trigger at the same time?

It’s not terrible problem, obviously. However, my promotion to Principal, a role I felt was quite an accomplishment, being celebrated in the same conversation as the discussion about whether we should fire the florist (again), did leave me feeling a little cheated. Or maybe that feeling was anger over how difficult it was to find a competent florist. Next to impossible, in fact. (Finally, we were forced to settle on one simply because it was three days before the wedding.)

I thought about why this phenomenon keeps happening to us. Could it be competition? Did the knowledge of my sister having a baby compel me to change careers and encourage my brother to wrap up his studies? Did we not want to be outdone?

Maybe now that my little nephew was going to bear witness to my life, did I want to be a good example? That’s a pretty thin explanation  The only thing I’m concerned about regarding my little neffie is whatever I need to do to keep him from having a Houston accent.

Could it be that we are inspired by each other? One of us gets on a roll and the others feel a fire in the belly? Maybe that has some merit, but I don’t see babies and weddings being things that require inspiration, necessarily.

Could it be that we’re all just coincidentally on the same cycle of success? Perhaps.

Then it hit me. The real thing that’s going on here. It became clear when one of my brother’s professors said that he overanalyzed everything. My sister and I immediately rushed to his defense. Clearly, we all have the same problem.

So I’m going to chalk this question  up as an example of overanalysis. Instead of continuing to meander down this path, I’m going to be grateful for an amazing year and toast to whatever’s coming up next.