Now that my brother and I are our in our 20's, I find that we have a better relationship than we used to. We can joke around and talk like two siblings should at our age, but it wasn't always the case. When we were children, I always found it to be a competition between my brother and I. He was always the athletic one, the popular one. Everyone loved my brother because he was very outgoing, intelligent, and easy to talk to. I wasn't always the easiest person to deal with.

When I was younger, I was a brat. I'm being honest -- I was a huge pain in the butt. I was shy with those I didn't know, which made making friends hard. I was just as smart as my brother was at that age (he is about 4 years older than I am), but I was a total drama queen. I remember I even ran away once because my brother was allowed to do something and I wasn't. Which is funny because my grandfather still hasn't let me live that down. Sometimes, I walk into the house and he will look at me and say "Welcome Back" just like he told my eight-year-old self when I came back from running away from home. I was spoiled, emotional, and a very unpleasant child. My brother, however, was always level headed and easy going (to me anyway).

Even though we were different as children, we have both gone down similar paths. We both moved to Louisiana at age 16, graduated from the same high school, and went to the same college. I have always felt like I have to live up to him and surpass him. I had to get a higher ACT score or higher GPA in high school. No matter what I did, I never felt like I was better than him and that bothered me. It wasn't until college that I realized that we are equally matched, just in different ways. My brother is an accountant and very good with numbers, but couldn't write a research paper to save his life. I, on the other hand, love to write and learn the ways of communication (since I am a communication major), but if you asked me to take calculus I would sooner bang my head against the wall. We are each other's yin and yang; both different, but equally as important. We are both loved by our family for different ways, but we are similar in one way; we are total weirdos.

I guess if there is a moral to this it would be to not think about your accomplishments as less important than your sibling's. It is not a competition, its just life. Be the best that you can be, but more importantly, be your own shadow. The only competition you should have is with yourself. Love your sibling, don't compete with them.