I Love My Cousins!

It's that time again... time to start answering your questions. (If you still want to ask me one go here for the instructions) Thanks to my cousin Andrew for this little beauty:

On a scale of 1-10 how amazingly amazing are your cousins, and which one would you trade places with for a day?

I have some pretty fantastically, awesomely, amazingly amazing cousins. On a scale of 1-10, I would probably go with about a 12. I am very lucky to actually know my cousins and consider them some of my best friends. On my mom's side of the family there are 19 of us that range in age from 29 to three. I'm the third oldest, so a lot of my cousins are younger, but I still have a good relationship with them. I even lived with one of my cousins for awhile.

Anyway, I had a really difficult time deciding which cousin I would trade places with. We're all so different and doing such different things in our lives that it was hard to choose.

Would I be Greg, who spends his life in front of an audience (an audience of third graders most of the time...)?

Would I be Pete, who is going on a Mexican Riviera cruise next week?

Would I be Liza, the little one with a big personality?

Would I be Josie, the extremely athletic tomboy?

Would I be Haley, the only 16-year-old I know that speaks Latin?

Would I be Andrew and experience fraternity life for a day?

Then it came to me... I would trade places with Jake.

Jake is 18 (I think), incredibly sweet, loves his family, and has pretty severe Down Syndrome. Why would I trade places with Jake? Let me tell you:

~He always has a smile on his face.

~His family is right there with him, every step of the way. No matter what is going on, he always has a sibling there to help him through it, hold his hand, or offer words of encouragement.

~He's bald. How great would it be to always know what your hair is going to look like?

~The simple things make him the happiest. He loves Harry Potter, Parent Trap, and Herbie.

~Chili. Yeah, I want to see what it's like to love chili as much as Jake does.

~I want to know what the world looks like from Jake's point of view. I want to see what he sees, think what he thinks, and feel what he feels. I want to know what it feels like to communicate with other people the way Jake does.
~He has the ability to make anyone around him smile.
~The sweet, sweet innocence that he carries with him. He never offends, hurts feelings, or is passive-aggressive. Everyone is his friend. He doesn't care who you are, he'll give you a hug if you need it.

So there you have it: the reasons why I would be Jake for a day.