People often go through life influenced by something or someone, a coach, a parent, a celebrity. These influential people help them reach their ultimate goal or become a person they want to be. I wasn’t sure who this person was in my life until my brother and I started getting along. We fought our way through childhood, up until he was a freshman and I was in fourth grade. We loathed being with each other, like many other siblings do. He was nefarious in my mind and I was vexatious in his. However, once he entered high school, things seemed to change.
We fought occasionally, but not as much. He got his license and would always offer to drive me around. I loved this just as much as my mom did. We would spend time together by choice, something neither of us ever thought would happen. I began to see him as a person I looked up to and admired. Our relationship was finally amicable and enjoyable. As he went through high school we found each other closer and closer each year. I loved our relationship because not only was it that, but it was a friendship. My brother became a friend, a best friend. But the time came, a time many families loath. College.
He was heading off to University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in the fall. It was only 25 minutes away, but it was loosing a best friend I had just gained. I enjoyed his company and didn’t want him to go. I knew it was inevitable and I would be fine without him, but it was going to be an adjustment I didn’t want to go through. Fall came and so did the rest of the year, and I was adjusting to it well. He came home on some weekends and breaks and we spent a lot of the time together. He continued college for the next two years and here we are today, his fourth year of college and his fourth year away. I have grown to adjust to his absence and surprisingly it has brought us closer. I am closer with him that I have ever been, even though he’s physically not with me. I have seen him grow into the adult he is and I admire him. I look up to him, his good grades, his responsibility and his work ethic. I can’t even fathom why we acted the way we did when we were kids, all the fighting was ineffectual and pointless. Look where I am now, best friends with someone who was once nefarious in my mind and now looking back and wondering why.