The Day I Met My Niece Final Draft

“Go ahead and hold her,” my sister Deirdre told me. I responded by giving her a look somehow encompassing shock, fear, and confusion into a single facial expression. My mind was spinning, my arms tightened, and I felt as if I couldn’t move. Here I was, a junior in high school with a great deal of experience being nervous, having given speeches in front on my entire school, played in overtime football games, shot free throws to win a game in front of a packed gym, but nothing compared to my feeling of sheer terror at being handed my screaming niece.

Aisling was born very premature, so tiny that she had been able to fit in her Christmas stocking, and during the seven hour flight to London over my Christmas break, I had sufficiently convinced myself that I was going to be unable to handle her and would drop her within seconds.
I was one the youngest of five siblings and had no real experience with babies. My brothers and sisters had always told me about the fun they had with me when I was a child and about the enjoyment they experienced in watching me grow. They told me that I would soon experience the same with Aisling. Still, I was expecting to be eased into this whole “uncle thing” one small step at a time. Maybe get accustomed to my surroundings for a little while, grab something to eat, do my taxes, read a book; anything but having to step into all-out uncle mode. I was 100% confident in my inability to be able to hold my niece. However, my sister had other ideas. For some strange reason, within minutes of my arrival, thought that the perfect time for easing me into this unknown territory would be to hand her hungry, tired, and crying daughter to me.

Now, here is where I would like to describe how she immediately calmed down when I held her and how she never cried when I held her from that day on, but that isn’t what happened. She took me one look at me and her crying reached record levels. However, I calmed down and felt my anxieties disappear immediately. Luckily, I didn’t drop her and I soon became comfortable with my duties as uncle (even if I refused to change diapers).

Our first meeting, though, was only the first chapter in the many great experiences I have had since my niece and nephew (born two years after Aisling) were born. She is now five (five and a half, as she would be quick to point out), and I have already had some of the best times of my life with her. We have had family vacations in Ireland and England, been together for graduations, baptisms, and trips to the beach, and even a surprise visit on Christmas.

I never could have imagined how much fun being an uncle could be. Once I put aside my nerves, I was able to sit back and watch my niece grow and learn. Six years ago, I never would have guessed the amount of hours spent playing hide-and-seek, re-enacting entire scenes from Christmas plays, or being chased around the house during an intense game of “dragons.” I now can’t picture my life without voicemail messages on my phone with a tiny, British voice on the other end or the many drawings sent on birthdays and holidays.

However, it took another moment for me to realize how much my family and I have changed since Aisling was born. We were at my parent’s home in Michigan, and I was in the middle of playing “Rocket ship” with Aisling, a game that my older brothers and siblings had played with me for hours when I was younger. One of my earliest memories is playing the game with my siblings as they threw me high in the air before always being there to catch me. I was in our living room playing with Aisling when my sister Deirdre, Aisling’s mother, walked into the room and froze in terror. I realized that the look on her face when she saw her twenty-one year old brother throwing her five year old daughter high into the air was the exact look my parents had given her fifteen years ago when she was playing with me.

My sister and I immediately laughed at the irony, but it was in that moment that I realized how we had all changed since my niece was born. We had all gotten older and taken on different roles. My sister had become the responsible mother, able to watch her child grow, but still horrified that someone was throwing her child in the air, though she had done the same years ago. For my part, I was getting to experience the same joy and feelings that my siblings had as they watched me grow. They were the ones who played with me, who I drew pictures for, and who I chased around the house for hours, and now I was getting to do the same for my niece and nephew. Aisling, meanwhile, seemed little concerned in recalling her mother and uncle’s memories and was only anxious to be thrown back up in the air. I laughed, took one look at my sister and then threw my niece high in the air, knowing that I would be there to catch her, just as my sister had been there for me.