Growing up you really were not my favorite person. And now I’m close to college graduation and I can’t even think of the past four years with you close to me as well as far away.

From as far back as I can remember your sole purpose for about 13 years was to try and make my life as difficult as possible. Little pranks and jokes that irritated the hell out of me were specialties of yours and now I sometimes find myself missing those days.

To this day I can still recall getting my acceptance letter to UCF and having that talk with mom and dad about “Do you really wanna go to school with Jesse?” and for some reason, that answer was, “Yes.” For the two years we spent together at the University of Central Florida, thank you. Thank you for the memories and for the lessons and for the many stories that I’ll always have. Most of all thank you for not completely hating you when I decided to come to school here.

If you have a sibling you know how incredibly difficult it is to go from that stage where you hate them every five minutes to one day waking up and realizing they are essentially your best friend. Through thick and thin and every unwanted or wanted experience you always have at least one person by your side. It’s great and crappy all in one.

You start off bickering all day and night. Your parents practically beg you to stop fighting while at home, in the car, and out in public. Then one of you (or both) is off to college and you graduate and do your own thing. At that point, life really starts to set in.

When you graduated and moved to Colorado I was so proud of you. You took a leap into the unknown that I don’t think I could’ve ever done. You went and really “lived your dream” just like mom told you to do. Then I got the call about your accident and for a while, everything just seemed to slow down. You moving home was the best and worst feeling, and I’m still so proud of you every day for being back on your feet, literally.

Watching you grow as a person and getting through so many challenges in life has only lead me to believe that I can do the same. You’ve urged me to push myself to my limits in so many aspects of life and to always fight to be a better me. You’ve shown me that living life isn’t all about making money and working, but more about the adventures and experiences that you get while you’re young.

Though you’re about 2,500 miles from me, I still always know you’re a text away. Thank you for always being by my side, even when I don’t make the smartest decisions and thank you for being the best sibling I could ever ask for.