Although I was daddy’s little girl growing up, my brother Sam was always there to fill the void when I couldn’t talk to my parents about something. Being two years older, Sam readily shared his perspective on my work ethic, school, boys, and any other topic he felt was pertinent to my well-being. Despite my faults and the many times I disregarded his wisdom, he has continued to be there to stress that no boy will ever be good enough for me and that there’s no such thing as too much sushi.

However, I now realize that my brother was attempting to teach me the following:

1. Worthwhile things don’t always come easily. Embrace roadblocks as obstacles to overcome.
My freshman year of high school my parents took my brother, his friends and I snowboarding at Mammoth Mountain. I had never snowboarded before, so I was eager for my brother and his friends to teach me. The first day on the slopes my brother showed me the basics on how to accelerate, stop, slow-down, and how to get off the lift without falling. The boys began to discuss which run they wanted to go down first, and they decided on a black diamond. Little did I know that a black diamond was an advanced slope with moguls. Needless to say I paraded down the mountain on my butt, discouraged and despising the sport of snowboarding. Feeling sorry for me, my brother had my dad enroll me in Ski School. Sam proceeded to babysit me for a couple hours while I learned how to fend for myself on the baby slopes. To make it up to me, Sam and his friends let me redeem myself on the black diamond by holding my hands while they propelled down the mountain backwards in an effort to keep me upright. 

2. Create suitable challenges and goals for yourself.
Anyone remember K’NEX? When my brother was young, he received a K’NEX Roller Coaster set for Chanukah. The build-it-yourself roller coaster entailed of over 2,400 little pieces that my brother put together in less than a week. Once it was finished, the fully functioning, 8-foot-wide roller coaster boasted a full loop and a motorized chain to lift the coaster’s car up the massive hill. At the ripe age of 8, my brother decided that he wanted to be an architect. From that point on, my brother expanded upon his fledging interest in all things architectural design until both our living and family rooms were decorated with K’NEX creations. 

3. Dare to exceed other’s expectations of you.     
When Sam was in eighth grade, he was assigned a science project that required students to conduct their own experiment, and if it were good enough, the project would be entered in the California State Science Fair. Long story short, my brother asked my mom to purchase him eight mice and four hamster wheels. For six months, eight mice lived in friendly quarters with my family as my brother hypothesized and observed the life longevities of mice that exercised versus mice that did not exercise. Well, my darling brother came in second place in the California State Science Fair. 

4. Follow your instincts because nobody knows what you want better than yourself. 
On the same day of the California State Science Fair awards ceremony, my brother had his championship game for his Little League team. My brother was never an amazing athlete, but boy did the kid put his heart and soul into sports. To intensify the conflict of interest, my mother is a science teacher and my dad is one of the biggest Yankee fans there is; there was some serious divide in which feat my brother should attend. In the end, my brother chose to attend his baseball game. In that final game of his baseball career, he hit his first home run ever. 

5. Never settle for short-term pleasure. Think long-term success. 
Sam has worked hard and received awards for a myriad of
things. Beginning in high school, he completed all levels of Boy Scouts and received his Eagle Scout of Honor. Following, my brother graduated high school with a 4.0, a full International Baccalaureate degree, and was admitted to the University of California at Berkeley. While in college, Sam served as Vice President of Standards for his fraternity, Kappa Alpha Order. He proceeded to graduate magna cum laude from Berkeley in 2014. He is now currently attending law school at the University of Pennsylvania. It's amazing what people can do if they set their minds to it.