Caleb

On the day of my birth, my brother got the flu. He was 3 and he asked my parents to take me back to the hospital because LOGICALLY I was the cause of his sickness and he wanted to prevent and further spread of the disease. But he quickly got over it and has enjoyed having a little sister ever since. (RIGHT??)
My brother and I have always had a strange relationship. And by strange I mean good. It would no doubt take me years to tell all of the reasons why we are some of the strangest but coolest people you will ever meet...and how you should consider yourself awesome for knowing us if you do. But mostly I just want to talk about one of the most interesting sides of our friendship: my brother and I have always felt each others' age. No, I don't mean we feel the SAME age. We feel EACH OTHERS' age. For example, my brother is 3.25 years older than me. But he has always felt 3.25 years younger than me. And I have always felt like the older sibling. I've had people ask if he was my younger brother and act surprised when I inform them I'm the baby. (...But it definitely beats the days when they asked if I was his little brother...or WIFE...hoooweee! Not good. Thankfully the wife reference only happened once. And our bickering kind of proved our point to the asking couple. The best moment was when they asked "How did you meet?" "Um...at BIRTH??")
I'm sure it wasn't ALWAYS like this. But it roughly feels that way. There's nothing about my brother that makes him LOOK younger than me. I mean he is 5 inches taller than me. I think the age feeling really solidified in highschool when he went to college. It definitely existed before but wasn't established until that time. My guess is around when I turned 16. I just remember every birthday after that my brother would say "YOU'RE 17?? But I feel 17!!" and I'd reply with "Well I feel 20!" and so on and so forth. So after awhile, we agreed that there must have been a birthday mix up by our parentals and I was officially (whatever that means) deemed the elder.
Ever since then, it's just felt normal. When he turned 23, he still felt 20 so we usually joke that he's turning 20. Occasionally our ability to finish each others' sentences and carry on conversations without actually saying much ("Did you get it?" "Well there weren't many." "OHM that flying thing definitely makes it a challenge." "I KNOW! Did you find the third?" "Definitely not my favorite." "Too much swamp.") but knowing exactly what the other person meant lead me to wonder if we were somehow twins. But there is definitely an age difference.
So without further delay, I'd like to wish my brother Caleb a happy "25th" birthday and to enjoy every second of it. ;) I WISH I could be there to hangout with you and go to PAX in a few weeks together. But I know you'll have a blast just the same. I hope you've enjoyed having me as an "older" sister as much as I've loved having you as a "younger" brother. And although we both know your spaceship didn't crash in mom and dad's backyard which substituted your "birth," you've always been the most unique, different, compassionate person I've ever known.
Happy Birthday!

Photo: My Mom