I'm one of two and throughout my life I've felt the pressure of being the oldest child. When I found out Santa Claus wasn't real, I had to pretend like I still believed so my little brother still could. As a pre-teen experimenting with curse words as middle-schoolers do I had to "watch my mouth" and what I said around my little brother. Then in high school I got involved, took all the AP classes I could, went to the dances and football games, got my license and a job and I set "the example".

Throughout my life I waited for him to follow in my footsteps. Eventually he learned Santa Claus wasn't real and developed a trucker mouth worse than mine. But when he got to high school, his path became far far different than mine, and it made me realize that he was more than just "my little brother". He was his own person, creating his own path, setting his own example.