Do you two want another sibling? My sister and I always responded with harsh rejection to this question. We had each other, and that was enough. We considered all the possibilities, such as constant crying or diaper changing, which solidified our strong refusal to have another sibling. However, in the most unexpected ways, the universe always has an exception to the questions we answer with "never."
While my older sister was in Long Beach for college, my parents had taken me to a party at my grandpa’s house. As I walked in, a tall man was sitting at the table and was discovered to be my second-generation cousin. Meeting him was oddly a comfortable experience as I worried about the universal fact that meeting distant relatives is more often than not, awkward. We bonded over what kind of music we listened to and even followed each other on Spotify. Later on, having nothing to do we decided to join the adults in playing poker. Despite having two brains and still being terrible at it, the laughs and one win we got are still very special to me as it marked the beginning of proving my past self wrong.
At another party held at my grandpa’s house, we met again but this time my sister who visited from Long Beach came along. Upon meeting my older sister for the first time, he offered to drive us around in his Model 3 Telsa, which was still relatively new at the time. As we sped around with the booming music, I remember I felt uncomfortable in the loud and reckless setting. However, when my sister and I were rejected from watching a rated-R movie because my sister was not of age by a year, we decided to call him out of the blue to ask if he wanted to come along. Even though it was last minute, he still thoughtfully decided to show up so we could be approved to enter. As we hung out more often, I came to love the environment he brought to us. He was the type to admire the scenes of nature when I never saw the point. He never failed to squeal and name every random luxury or sports car that drove past us on the street. The growing endearment for the things that I used to pay little attention to made me realize that I wanted to preserve what his bright soul loves to protect.
Before I knew it, my sister and I were screaming in excitement and naming the cars on the street. The reckless and loud nature became excitingly liberating. The times we would drive up to the mountains and simply just watch the lights of the city became beautiful as he taught us to appreciate these little secrets of the world. Quite quickly, he started to constantly visit our house and eat dinner with us. These visits also caused him to become closer to our parents to the point my mom started to call him her adopted son. Is this what it means to have a brother? He would pay for all of our cravings whether it be Baskin Robins, Boba Run, Starbucks, and more. When my sister or I hit our lowest points in life, he would always comfort us and make us laugh until our worries left our heads for a moment. Even so, at the same time, he would discover every chance to playfully annoy us.
It has come to the point where I can not describe what he is to us without using the word “brother”. Like him, the best people give because they want to not because they want something in return and the most caring influences others’ compassion to arise in efforts to defend what is loved. It truly was a strange treasure to find someone like the notion my sister and I have always avoided. We never knew that there was someone out there who could fill our lives with so much more color than we could have ever imagined. Someone would make the dinner table feel incomplete. Someone who could make me cry upon finding out he could not come to the Philippines with us and surprise us by flying over to us a few days later. Someone who comes to mind when I see a Mustang driving on the street. Having met him, I could not imagine our lives without his brilliant brotherly character. He is the sole reason why I could never say never as you will never know what miraculous exceptions will drop from the sky.
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