Niko

Like everyone else, the memories I have from when I was little are really just from pictures that I have seen over the years. However, there is one moment that I will keep with me forever, the moment I looked down at a beautiful baby boy and my parents said, “You’re a big sister now.” There were conversations about me being responsible, helping to take care of him, and always looking out for him, something I like to think I did well until the day I dropped him in his crib. Hey, at least it was in the crib! What most people don’t know is that we grew up like every other normal set of siblings, we yelled, we screamed, we kicked and wrestled. I was a pre-teen filled with too many emotions that I never had control over and he was a bouncing ball of energy with pudgy red cheeks and a tendency of never knowing when to stop. We drove each other crazy.

Then something happened that no one expected, we became best friends. The summer after my freshman year of high school my mother signed us up for summer camp. I think the reason she did this was because the previous summer we had stayed home by ourselves and spent those three months in our rooms playing video games or watching movies while barely interacting with each other. She dropped us off at camp on our first day and we were both nervous, we knew absolutely no one. We were immediately separated because the campers were kept with their respective age groups and our five year age difference didn’t help that matter. We were each on our own and it seemed that everyone in our new groups already knew each other from attending camp together for years. We would walk from activity to activity and I would constantly be on the lookout for him, telling myself that I just wanted to make sure he was doing ok, but knowing it was for my own benefit of seeing a face of someone I knew. We went home after camp that day, went our separate ways, and got ready to do it all again the next day.

Because of her work schedule our mom wasn’t going to be able to drop us off at camp and still make it to work on time, so we convinced her to let us walk on our own. The camp was a mile away from our house and if the two of us walked together, we knew we would be safe and our mom wouldn’t have to speed to work.

It was the greatest thing to ever happen to us.

Have you ever had to walk side by side with someone for two miles a day in complete silence? Let me tell you, it’s pretty much impossible.

We started talking, my little brother and I actually started talking to each other, no yelling or screaming, just good old fashioned talking. When we got to camp we went our separate ways but the moment it came time to leave, we would spend the mile walk home talking about everything we did that day. After some time we started realizing that while we were in separate groups all day long, our days were similar and our interactions with our new friends were something we wanted to share with each other. We started to come home and share stories at the dinner table with our parents about funny things that had happened through the day, both of us jumping over the other with excitement over the story and laughing when we reached the end. As time went on we started talking about more things when we walked, things we were going to be doing that upcoming weekend with our family or books we were reading. It felt like we could tell each other anything, he would talk to me about the girls he had crushes on and I would tell him about the drama going on with the older kids at camp. Quickly, we found ourselves looking forward to our walks together, but just as quickly camp was coming to an end and our walks would no longer exist.

When camp was over we started to miss spending that time together so we started to hang out. I know it sounds crazy, we have always lived in the same house, but you try telling two siblings to “hang out” together who have never done it before and I bet they will look at you with complete confusion. It started with movie watching, we would hang out and watch movie after movie together and laugh or cry. I will never forget the day we sat down and watched “A Walk To Remember” together (one of my favorite movies at the time, which he had never seen) and he started crying, he turned to me and said “I know it’s a movie but it all seems so real.” Looking back, that was probably one of the first times I knew I could talk to him about actual feelings and emotions I had and he would most likely listen and try to understand.

Flash forward exactly fifteen years from that first summer at camp and you will rarely ever see us apart. We do everything together, shopping, movies, dinners out at our favorite restaurants, we read the same books, go to the same parties, my friends are his friends and vice versa, where one of us ends the other begins. Trust me, I know how that sounds, we’ve seen our fair share of eye rolling, or people who just never quite understand how it’s possible that we are the way we are with each other, and worst of all the people who think it’s all a show.

I get it, so let me explain it this way, think of your best friend. Imagine the one person you can tell absolutely anything to before your brain even processes what you’re about to say; you know what I’m talking about, those moments when you say the first thing that pops into your head and your best friend turns to you and says, “That might actually be the dumbest thing you’ve ever said,” and you both end up laughing hysterically. Think of the one person who has held you while you cried the moment your heart was completely shattered, or all of the times your other friends disappointed you and you knew without a doubt this one person would never do that. Picture the one person who you want to travel the world with and eat all the delicious foods from a thousand different cultures with. Think about how much you love this person, and how you would give absolutely anything for them to find the person they’re meant to spend the rest of their life with, and how you can’t wait to stand beside them on their special day when they do. Think about the one person you would have more fun spending a Friday night in watching TV and eating junk food with, than anything else in the entire world. The person you’ve talked to about your hopes and fears, the one who knows what mystical creature you would be if given the choice, and whether or not you really believe in heaven, soulmates, or big foot. Think of this person, YOUR person, and now imagine what it would be like to have spent your entire life living with that person. Day in and day out, someone literally by your side, pushing you to be the best version of yourself only because they love you so much. Someone who makes every moment better just because they are a part of it, and imagine they understand just how crazy your parents are because they have the same ones.

THAT has been my life, and I know we will continue to get looked at strangely when we say, “Yea we know we’re siblings, but we’re best friends first” and that’s ok, because I found my person. Maybe it took a few years for us to get there and a few more to get where we are today, but there’s no one else I would rather walk through life with than the amazing person I am lucky to call my best friend.