This is Josh, my little brother who isn't exactly all that little. He's younger though and at one point in my life I was of the firm belief that he was going to stay smaller because I was older. Older meant bigger for sure. This warning had also come from my father who liked to remind me regularly as I was dragging or bossing him around, that one day he'd be bigger and not let me get away with all that.
Sometimes he still does. It's kind of nice.
Josh turns 25 today! I hate to think what that means about how old I a, but hey, it's kind of a big deal for him. Surviving 25 years and all is an accomplishment (especially given the large number of threats of 'I'm going to kill him' that just I alone gave).
I get mushy on him all but never, so I'm going to today. It's his birthday after all. Josh is one of my best friends. I know every sibling says that, but for a long, long time it was just Josh and I agains the world. We never grew up with cousins close to our age, we didn't have those parents who brought other people's children on vacation with them, we moved around as kids a couple of times and even when you're moving back some place you lived before, there's an adjustment period where you're sort without other friends. I always had Josh.
Neither one of our parents are super close to their siblings. Part of that is age, part of that is distance and in some cases, there's just little that they have in common. Josh and I, no matter how far apart geographically we got have been determined not to be that. And so far, we've done a good job. We don't have a ton in common some days. I was a geek, one who blew through math and sciences in school and struggled to focus long enough to make it through one two hour marching band practice. Josh, struggled through math, studied in high school and had mastered more instruments by the time he was 18 than I will ever. (I still can only kinda play one.) He has the talent, the photogenic-ness and most days the good looks too. It's sort of unfair.
There are few people in the world that I can say that I honestly look up to. I admire people, sure, but there are very few that I go "Yeah I wish I was as awesome as they are in this." Josh is one of those people. He is, much to my own personal disappointment, probably way cooler than I am, far more interesting and slightly less obsessive. He's a hell of a lot braver than I am without a doubt and when it comes down to it, he's gonna save my ass, not the other way around.
Josh is the kind of little brother who when you call and try and convince him to go with you to a show in Rhode Island, he takes you. He's the guy who stands behind you the first time you consider going to talk to Bryan and he gives you a push and demands to know what you're afraid of. (He used this same tactic to get me on the Tower of Terror in Disney World. "This girl is seven and she's not scared. What are you scared of?" The third time I rode that ride, when I came off of it crying? He was the one who put his arm around me.) To say he's to blame for the start of all this? It's probably true. He's to blame for an awful lot of it.
Still, it's his birthday, so today, we are nice to him. Today we love him just a little more than usual.
Happy Birthday Little Man.
12:23 PM
kT
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