Oh Brother

"You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family." 

It's true. None of us chose our families. We didn't choose our siblings. We choose our friends and we choose the people we spend the most time with. But what if our family--or more specifically our

siblings--were our friends? What if they were our best friends? Well mine just so happens to be my best friend. And in fact, I did choose that. I can remember the day I chose that. See, what many of you may or may not know, there was a time in my life when I was going to make a very selfish decision. I was in too much pain for my own good and didn't see any way out of it except for death. Yes, I was going to kill myself. Now there were many things that eventually pulled me out of that pit (one being most importantly God) but when I look back at where my mind was there is one thing that stands out. I've been around long enough to understand what suicide does to those people left behind. It destroys them. It destroys the families and the friends of the person who committed the act. I could hurt myself all I wanted to, but I couldn't hurt my brother. I knew that if I had taken my life into my own hands it would hurt my parents but it would also hurt the one person I cared more about in this world than anything; my best friend. So yeah, looking back on it now, my brother saved my life. All this to say, I've recently come to the conclusion that he is one of my favorite people. I look up to him; physically and figuratively. He is one of the strongest human beings I've ever met. When he's in pain, he doesn't show it. And when he does, then oh boy, everybody OUT! haha just kidding. Sometimes I think he's almost TOO good. But then I remember we're siblings and we still have our arguments. I realize that I'm writing to a wide demographic and some of you may not have siblings. For that I am terribly sorry. I can honestly say I hope that you have someone in your life who fills that spot. I would be lost without my brother. No. I would be dead. He's an impressive human being. He stands up for me when I can't stand up by myself. He defends me when I've dropped my shield and lost my weapon. He makes me smile more than any other person on this planet. I was proud of the person he was, I am proud of the person he is, and I will always be proud of the person he becomes. So yeah. We can't pick our family we can only pick our friends. So maybe our best friends are in our family. Who knows? You know, a lot of people have asked me what I wanna be when I grow up. I suppose I should just answer honestly. When I grow up, I wanna be like my brother.