Dear loved ones, you are in for a surprise…

Let me start this by saying: My lovely mom and I have been planning this for almost two months. So I am very happy to finally being able to post this (also, THIS is the reason, why I wasn’t posting more frequently in the last month or so – out of fear, I would say something, that would ruin the surprise!)

Now, this is a short introduction to my older brother Norms:

He is 26 years old (2 years and exactly 2 months older than me), he is a Pisces and a Tiger. He is a little bit taller than me, short brown hair, dark eyes. He is also not quite what I would call the most welcoming person upon first arrival but once he gets to know you, he will be your friend for a lifetime. He does everything for his friends and family, the only thing he expects in return is respect. He is a family-oriented person, he would go the extra mile for family members without flinching once. He is persistent and has a lot of perseverance. He is a technical person who does not like to argue (however he likes winning arguments) and above all his shortcomings, he is a dedicated dad.

As a child I always wanted to be like my big brother. I would brag about him in front of my friends, would tell them, that he would beat them up, if they wouldn’t let me play with them (and since he was bigger than them, they respected him and let me play with them). I would pretend I was his most-favorite side-kick, kind of like Batman and Robin (one of his most favorite TV series). I wanted to be just like him, I imitated his style of clothing, I would listen to music just because he did, I would eat only things, he would and I would always see what he was up to. Always ready to be able to play with him, if he had a free minute.

One day I realized though that Norms and I are not the same person, in fact we are very much like night and day, it started with little things like: realizing that I am no good at any kinds of sports (especially not soccer), I hate math (which he of course was good at), I loved to read and write (which he absolutely dreaded), I thought going fishing was boring (which he loved doing, he’d go almost every weekend with my grandpa) and I thought chess was for geeks (which is why I stopped playing).

I told you about my 18th birthday a few weeks ago, and that he didn’t mention a single thing to me, right? Well, this time, it was my time to keep quiet. My mom, my dad, my aunt and uncle, my grandpa and four of my best friends (all located in Vienna) knew that I was coming to Austria at the end of May. In retrospect is rather surprising, that word didn’t get spread like wildfire over facebook, twitter and several other online platforms. But my goal was, not to tell my older brother, he was in for a sweet surprise.

I left mid-afternoon on Monday, 21st of May. My parents had clear instructions on not telling anyone that I was coming, they were also instructed to make reservations at a restaurant and have everyone meet there, shortly after my arrival. My dad picked me up from the airport, just as giddy as I was, I know that, because a few days earlier he sent me tons of texts about how the arrangements were going. My dad and I parked the car in front of the restaurant and went in.

We carefully picked a table, that upon entering the restaurant, wasn’t easily visible and then the waiting began. We waited for about 30 minutes, always looking at the entrance, making sure, that they weren’t here yet (and by they, I mean my mom, my brothers and my niece) and then, my dad whispered, ‘hide’, which I did, under the table. In retrospect, yes, this was really odd but it was soooo worth it!!!!

I waited until they were close enough until I popped up from under the table and Norms was flabbergasted. He wasn’t quite sure if I was, who he thought I was. He hugged me and started laughing and crying and smiling and was just amazed. My mom and my younger brother started crying, happy tears that is. My younger brother also didn’t have a clue and both of my brothers said, that they didn’t expect a single thing. And then of course, the most joyous thing, the thing I was looking forward too for the past five months, I finally got to hold my little niece again.