I believe that all I ever needed to know, I learned from my brother. We always got along better than other siblings, especially once we were roughly mid-elementary school age. He is two years older than me and has been someone that I have looked to as an example for as long as I can remember. I have always seen him as being smart, funny, athletic, and overall neat person, especially when I was younger. I  suppose there is a certain aspect of basic sibling rivalry in the equation, here, but I think how I saw him boils more accurately down to his accomplishments being more achievable for me once I realized that he was capable of doing it. If he could kick a ball that far, so could I. If he could play goalkeeper that well, there is no reason that I couldn’t start to learn how. If he could ski all the runs at Showdown, it was only a matter of time before I would be there alongside him.

I would never settle for second best at something that I knew I could achieve more in. This allowed me to figure out how to learn a skill in a shorter amount of time and process information faster and more thoroughly. Both aspects meant I had to spend more time doing things and pushing through frustrations, but once that became my normal, I was able to soar. I started living this philosophy when I was very young, and I quickly internalized it to be a part of who I am.

Once he got into high school, he started taking all these neat classes. He knew so much more than I did, all of a sudden. He obviously had always been two years of schooling ahead of myself, but he took off running once he hit freshman year. I was fascinated by the things he was learning in his science classes and humanities class. We would talk about it after we were both home from school and I was hooked immediately. Once I reached ninth grade, we were able to spend more time together, which meant more time for him to teach me things without it feeling like a lesson. I learned about geology, archaeology, physics, space, existentialism, and just general life things.

Although I have read and learned so much about these topics on my own time, if it weren’t for Alex jump-starting those interests I would never have known what I do today. He inadvertently taught me how to improve my own talents when we were young, and then he purposefully taught me about crazy neat things I would have never become fascinated about without his help when we were older. He is currently a freshman in college, and I am honestly relieved to have an older brother like him to experience something as terrifying as that before I have to. He has been telling me all these stories about his experiences thus far, which allows me to internalize and come to terms with what to expect before having to seriously worry about it myself.

Everything I ever needed to know, I have been learning from my brother for the past sixteen years, and I am glad to say that he has helped make me into the person I am today and will become in the future.