to my brothers

I am blessed with four brothers--two courtesy of my parents, and two I was fortunate enough to find during this past year. Brothers are amazingly chill, constantly funny and easy to talk to and they make me smile with their secrets, pep talks and overacted macho behavior.

My first brother is blood-related and I cannot remember life without him. He was my first friend and my first enemy, stealing cookies from the fridge and blaming me later, ripping off my Barbie dolls' heads but drawing me a preschool picture within the next hour. I wear his XXL sweatshirts on my lazy days, tell him which Christmas present he should get our mother and vent to him for hours when I'm angry at our parents. Of course, at times I want to decapitate him, but you can't know somebody for your whole life and love them every single second. He always takes my side in family arguments, offers to do the dishes because he knows it's my least favorite chore and brings me soda cans during intense homework sessions. He is never too busy or too cool to talk to me.

My second brother is also blood-related and still in elementary school, so he and I are not exactly equals. He spends far too much time on Xbox and can be a downright brat, but he's also charming and funny and talkative--he goes on rants at family dinners about farm animals and soccer balls and whatever else is going on in the weird little brain of his, making us all laugh even when we're stressed or tired. I think he's going to grow up to be a comedian, because the little goof just makes you smile, especially when you don't want to.

I found my third brother in the eighth grade--we'd been middle school peers since sixth grade math, when we had a horrible teacher and learned nothing but fractions and which color shirts were in the J.J. Crew catalog, but while slash after he and my friend dated during the winter, we started talking. I discovered he had an eclectic taste in music. He discovered I was a sports freak. And by July, we were best friends. Don't ask me how it happened, but we've actually lost the capibility of being awkward. I can talk to him about anything--for example, we once had a great conversation about God at twelve-thirty on a Wednesday night, and he's helped me through pretty much all of my relationship problems. He's ethnically confused, musically talented, strongly opinionated and 100% brother.

I only got to know my fourth brother this year, right before he started dating my best friend. In one word, he's adorable--the type of kid who says Bruno Mars-type compliments without even realizing it how sweet they are, the kid who tells his older sister about the girl he likes and his first kisses. He's definitely a self-esteem booster, as well as a swimmer and an Oreo enthusiast. He's the one I call to vent about what an awful day I've had and somehow improves my mood by telling me about his drawing of robotic frog. Plus, he treats his my best friend like a freakin' queen, and she deserves that.

Also, after reading this, my fourth brother complained that his paragraph was too short, so let's add--he cheers me up when I'm sad and constantly saves me from insanity, I never get tired of talking to him, he's liberal with hugs and his father offered to adopt me in exchange for the family dog, which on some level is slightly insulting because I feel I am worth more than a dog, but it's fine because his dad is awesome. I have tons of weird and funny memories, and no, kiddo, you don't hate me, because you're under contract to say I'm your best friend :)

So here's to my brothers. Thank you for arguing, for listening, for venting, for hugging, for everything. Love you.