The Beauty of Being a Big Brother

Laughter, joy, and lifelong memories are more or less facts rooted in shared experiences. You know what the people around you are feeling when you are involved in one of these moments. As a big brother, these moments are what persists, and what shows the beauty of sibling relationships.

It is easy to list out any struggles in sibling relationships because they are finite. I can put together thoughts and create a concrete list of the “negative” side of things. That list is then complete. It is a static list where unless something drastically changes, it will remain as is. The beauty is much harder to compile because it is infinite. Every day, a new experience could occur, a joke could be said, and an accomplishment witnessed that could be added to the list of positivity. The beauty is all around and almost constant.

The beauty is convincing your brother to jump into frigid water in Alaska with you. The beauty is having conversations together that wouldn’t be had with parents. The beauty is passing your experiences and ideas down to people who care. The beauty is winning a game of Warzone all together in the same room. The beauty is sneaking in to play an hour more of video games without parents knowing. The beauty is showing them Superbad, This is the End, The Hangover, Jackass, and countless other movies for the first time. The beauty is seeing them laugh harder than they ever have before when watching those movies. The beauty is not having to hold back anymore when playing sports. The beauty is realizing either they got faster, or you got slower as you run next to them. The beauty is all of us making fun of one brother one day, and the other the next. The beauty is laughing at each other. The beauty is hearing about their experiences in school and life. The beauty is knowing they care. The beauty is realizing how similar they are to you. The beauty is seeing they can be better than you are. The beauty is seeing them grow up to become who they are.

The struggles are a very small part, the beauty is all around. As an older sibling, the best thing to do is take a step back and appreciate how lucky you are.