Brothers

I've been meaning to share this interesting story told to me by my brother's school's basketball coach (whew). One day, after catching one of their games, I went up to introduce myself to my brother's coach. She looked at me like she was happy to meet me, then she proceed to tell me a neat story about my brother and his certain jersey number of choice.

I remember this one day where my brother came home and cried, but I never realized why. Until that afternoon. His coach told me when they were choosing their jersey numbers, my brother wanted to wear "21", but another kid in front of him had another picked that number. While it never clicked in my head initially what's the significant behind "21", I soon realized why he was so upset, because my brother wanted to wear my jersey number. I have to admit, I got a little choked up. I didn't know how to feel, I was happy, proud and a little worried.

For my brother and I because of our age difference (10 years) we don't really do much together and we didn't really connect until this past summer when we spent every moment of everyday with one another since my mom was away. My mom has always told me how much my brother looks up to me, how when he gets something (usually food) he always share with me, how when I am out he'll stay up to wait for me. I never grasp how to be a brother until this summer, I never knew how much he meant to me until this summer and I never knew how much I love him until now.

What worries me is this kid looks up to me, and I haven't exactly been the role model type. It worries me that he'll grow up and do the things that I do. After hearing about the jersey story, I realized how much I am not doing for myself, how much I need to do to better myself, how much I need to do to be a better brother and a better role model. I love this kid to death, I am sure everybody out there who has siblings will know exactly what I am talking about.