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My brother is moving to a metropolitan city tomorrow to start his four year journey at university. Growing up, my brother and I never really got along but in some ways we are very much a like. When we were little, my sister and I would pick on him constantly because he was the youngest and quite frankly we were really bored. One time we found some random picture of a kid in a really ugly brown sweat suit posing with what we assumed was his mother and somehow convinced my brother that it was him in the picture….. O and that he was adopted. He cried for days. We laughed for years. The kid didn’t even remotely look like him.
My brother and I are 5 years apart which makes it hard for me to connect with him on any level other than our fondness for arguing. It just seems like he’s going to where I was 5 years ago. In elementary school and high school I had my name engraved on so many awards. Years later my brother would have his turn. I was good at sports, so he became good at sports. I had high grades, so he had to “one-up” me even if it meant by one per cent. Needless to say we were very competitive.
So what would I tell my brother or a younger version of me who’s about to embark on a journey that I just finished and could very well turn out to be the best thing that could happen to him? I would tell him to stop and breathe once in a while, enjoy the moment because you’ll never get it back, pay attention to your friends, know what your priorities are, hard work will pay off, believe in yourself, don’t ask for advice from people who don’t know what the hell they’re talking about (i.e. guidance counselors), and get to know people who are much wiser than you are (not necessarily older). Will I tell him any of this? I’ve tried. But if he’s anything like me, he hasn’t listened to a damn word I’ve said.