Over twenty years ago I found out that I was going to be a big sister, and I prayed that my parents were going to have a little girl. However, that is not quite what God had in store for our family, and He would be blessing us with a little boy. When I found out that I was going to have a brother, I told my mom that I was going to lock him in the closet when she brought him home because I wanted a sister… Little did my parents know that this was just the beginning of the special relationship that my brother Eric and I would share.

As kids, Eric absolutely adored me. In his eyes I could do no wrong, and he did everything to try to make me happy and to get me to pay attention to him and spend time with him. The poor kid worshiped the ground I walked on! When we were younger I used to completely abuse the fact that he thought I was the best thing that had come into his life. I used to pick on him, tease and torment him, and beat the ever living hell out of him (I never actually hurt him, just throwing that out there!) What a good sister I was, right?! To this day I can still hear my mom saying to us, “You two need to get along, be nice to each other, and love one another, because when your dad and I are gone some day, you two are only going to have each other.” Of course at such a young age, neither one of us listened to how true her words were.

When middle school and the first two years of high school rolled around for me I wanted absolutely nothing to do with my little brother. At this stage in our lives, I was the “cool” older sister that he looked up too, and I looked at him as the “dorky little brother who was too small for his age and was interfering with my new social life.” He was constantly trying to hang out with my friends, and he was beyond excited because I was friends with a lot of the “popular” upperclassman athletes because I was an athlete myself. Everywhere I went Eric wanted to tag along and it drove me nuts. I was your typical teenage girl who had just got her license and was trying to figure out who I wanted to become in this world while also trying to find my independence at the same time. God bless my family for putting up with me during these years!

In 2010, my junior year of high school, and Eric’s freshman year of high school, is when things started to change between the two of us. Not only were we in the same school together for the first time ever, but this was also when we found out that we would be moving from the small town in Maine that we had known our whole lives, to Mount Juliet, Tennessee for the start of my senior, and his sophomore year of high school. I was ecstatic to move and to get out of the town that I had grown up in so that I could see what opportunities were out there. Eric on the other hand was devastated because he had just started high school and had a close group of friends that he had known since before they could walk, that he would be leaving behind.

When we moved to Tennessee in 2011 it was a bigger adjustment than Eric and I had anticipated. As a family we only had each other to depend on because we didn’t know a single soul. Eric and I grew so much closer to each other during this time. We hung out more, went out and did more things together, talked civilly to each other, and we began to trust and rely on one another. For the very first time we were finally creating a bond that our parents had been praying for since we were little kids. Suddenly, he wasn’t “Just my little brother” anymore, he was my friend too.

Throughout the next few years our relationship grew stronger. In 2012 I moved away to college and attended The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where I started my journey of studying to become a nurse. During my first year at UTC I decided to go through sorority recruitment, and I ended up joining a sorority that has helped to make me who I am today… I had found my home away from home in the Theta Phi Chapter of Sigma Kappa. At the time, Eric thought that Greek Life was absolutely ridiculous, and he was convinced that when he went to college that he was never going to be “One of those Frat guys.” However, before I knew it, Eric was graduating from high school and was going to be joining me at UTC where he would be majoring in business with aspirations of going to Law School when he finishes his undergrad degree. After giving me such a hard time about being in Sigma Kappa, and being an active member of UTC’s Greek Life, Eric decided to become “One of those Frat guys.” The very first thing he did when he got to UTC was go through Fraternity Rush Week where he ultimately accepted a bid and later on became a brother of Pi Kappa Alpha… The same fraternity that was near and dear to my heart because I had so many friends that were brothers of PIKE, and it was the fraternity that I chose to spend my time at, and felt at home at.

Eric was known as “Danielle’s little brother” his whole freshman year of college, and he hated it… Especially when girls he would to talk to would find out that he was my little brother! Eric wanted to make a name for himself and didn’t want to be living in my shadow, or under the name that I had made for myself because I was so active in UTC’s Greek community… He just wanted to be his own person, and I could appreciate that. During the fall semester of Eric’s freshman year, and my junior year of college, I had made the decision to transfer to Cumberland University, the place where I am currently finishing up my Bachelors Degree in Nursing. Knowing that I would soon be leaving UTC, I slowly but surely started removing myself from my close ties to Greek Life and allowed Eric to start creating the legacy that he will leave on the Delta Epsilon chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha, as well as UTC’s Greek Life as a whole.

The one year that we spent together at the same university was an eye opening experience for me. I was able to watch “My little brother” become my “NOT so little brother” as he now towers over me and is way stronger than me. (I don’t try to push him around anymore… Lesson learned!) I was able to see him create friendships that will last a lifetime, and I watched him succeed academically. I was his cheerleader and saw him through his accomplishments and his high points of his freshman year of college, and I was also there to catch him and be his support during his times of trouble and hardship. However, my favorite part throughout this year in college together was being able to watch him start his journey of growing into and becoming the young man that he is today; a young man that has an incredibly bright future ahead of him, and a young man that I am extremely proud of.

If you could go back 20+ years and watch our relationship unfold from the very beginning, you would have never guessed that we would be where we are today, and you would have never guessed that we would be as close as we are. Not only is Eric my “NOT so little brother,” but he is also my rock, my secret keeper, my shoulder to lean on, the protector of my heart from men that don’t deserve it, the one who I can call day or night to talk to about anything, knowing that I’ll never be judged, the one that pushes me to grow in my faith, and so much more. I may be the older sister, but having Eric as my little brother has taught me more about myself and about life than I could have ever imagined. I can honestly say that I wouldn’t be the woman that I am today if I didn’t have him in my life.

“God has a reason for allowing things to happen. We may never understand His wisdom, but we simply have to trust His will” (Psalm 35:7). I am a true believer that everything happens for a reason, and that God always gives us what we need, just when we need it. By giving me a little brother, God also gave me a best friend, and that is something I will forever cherish and be grateful for.