Carry on - but you don't have to keep calm

If someone asked you what was the most commonly said word or phrase around your house, what would it be? For me, it would be “¡Cálmate!,”which means to calm down.  In my house, all ends of the emotional spectrum on touched on a daily basis, but the one that never seems to have had enough time in the spotlight would be excitement. It’s not that amazing events don’t occur frequently in my family, it’s just that we all get so excited for anything.

When my brother and I were little (and by little I was maybe 11 and my brother was 8 years old) we would always play Monster Car. This was a game we made up with our dad to force him to play with us. The gist of the game was that two of us would get into the minivan and lock the doors and then my father would shake the car, roar away, and use the keys to get in and tag someone else to be the monster. Now, this doesn’t seem like that great of a game, but with my brother and I yelling our lungs off and running to opposite ends of the car to re-lock the doors, it was. The key to making the best out of it, was being all about it.

I was reminded of my family’s tendency to get overly excited when I FaceTimed with them the other day. On one end of the kitchen table you had Alejandra in all her messy-haired glory giving me puppy dog eyes and telling me she “has a question,” the newest phrase she learned from her Pre-K teacher.

Then, sprawled on the floor, you had Cirillo squinting and giggling at me. But the Energizer Bunny of the bunch was none other than the youngest, Joselito, running all around the living room, repeatedly screaming “Hi!” and then body slamming my dad. This was all after my mom and sister announced dinner was almost ready. I guess this isn’t the greatest example of how hype they get on a regular basis because who doesn’t turn into an excited screaming mess when they hear that food is almost ready? But hey.

At the end of the day, why not get hype over certain things? Sure, Christmas is more than a month away, but if I want to bust out “Last Christmas” by Wham, you better believe I will - and I won’t calm down. If you take away anything from my musings, take this: