Behind the Inhaler Pt. 18

How do I go about describing the relationship I have with my brother? My brother is a Saint, my best friend, my father figure, my mentor, my cheerleader, my inspiration, and my rock. My brother has always been there for me.

Jimmy, never James, is five years older than me. Most of my most cherished and memorable childhood moments occurred with or around Jimmy. We've never been like your typical siblings and I don't think we ever will be. Typically, my parents would leave Jimmy in charge of me almost everyday while I was growing up. As a result of this I became as much his child as I am there's. Most people only see the similarities between the two of us, when really we're very different. The biggest difference between the two of us is the way we process information. Jimmy is impulsive, quick to respond, and tends to act before thinking. I on the other hand think, think some more, and then act. Which is another key to our sibling compatibility. We even each other out.

I feel like now would be a prime time to share a few stories from my childhood.

One particularly stormy evening my brother was babysitting me while our parents were out doing...who knows what. Our house originally had fourteen trees in the backyard, now we have half of a tree left. You can only guess where this story is going. I was probably five at the time making Jimmy somewhere around ten or eleven. We were sitting upstairs in our family room when tumultuous crash rang through our house. Before either of us could react we had a tree large enough to block a road in our kitchen. The first words out of my mouth were "It was not me!" Jimmy on the other hand in fear that my father could somehow make this his fault began freaking out. Long story short, Jimmy and I tried to drag a fully matured tree out of our kitchen. You can probably guess that we weren't successful. About the other thirteen and a half trees, most of them fell on our house too.

One of my favorite "Jimmy" memories would be my eleventh birthday. Jimmy was a member of the cross country team which practices all summer. My birthday almost always falls on a weekday which means my parents work. I woke up (my mom was still home) to no birthday wishes, and no sign of my birthday even being remembered. I was devastated. My mom had no clue what had "gotten into me" when she left for work. About an hour later Jimmy returns home from practice with three stuffed Meijer bags. Jimmy forced the team to run to Meijer so he could buy me Ben and Jerry's, pop, cake, and DVD's for us to watch and eat the rest of the day. It turned into one of my favorite birthday's ever.

All in all, my brother and I are very close and I hope to stay this way. It's become more difficult now that he's at college, engaged, and getting internship offers all over the U.S. We've always had a deal that no matter where we ended up we'd be there for each other, and I hope more than anything that holds true.

I never thought about having any other siblings because Jimmy was all I ever needed. I can't even imagine what it would be like without him.

My brother and I last February. Messing around with the webcam.

Jimmy and I sitting where the Forrest Gump bench should be this past summer. People were stealing it so they had to take it away.

Wow I wish I was still this cute...haha