This man is a hero and an inspiration in my life. He is someone that some of you may have never met and someone that some of you have known even longer than I have. It is hard to believe that some of you have known him longer than I have, as I have known him for my entire life. That's right, since the first day of my life, I have been lucky enough to have such an amazing person in my family. This is my brother, Jeremy. Today he ran his first marathon. I was not able to be there, but I can't express to you how proud I am of him. Whatever he sets his mind to, he achieves it. He is a daily inspiration to me and I can only hope that I reach half of the number of goals in my life that he has already met in his. Let me tell you a little bit about our past together.
The start was a little rocky. You see, he wanted a brother, and well, as you can tell from the picture, he did not get one. He was lucky enough to get me :) When I was born, he was at home while my parents were at the hospital. My dad called to tell him that he had a sister and in the words of an all too wise 3 1/2 year old, he said "This is the worst day of my life." As you see, things were doomed from the beginning. It didn't get much better for a while. He refused to look at me or interact with me for quite some time. He would make a large arc around my mom if she were holding me. At one point after I was born, my grandparents were in town and my mom was holding me. My dad told my brother to go clean his room (or do some other little chore). My brother did not want to do this at all, so he went to his room, promptly came back with a sock monkey, threw it at my dad and yelled "This is you, Dad!!" I wish I were old enough to remember all these treasures of memories, but alas I was just an infant.
After a while, though, things improved. He started to realize that having a younger sister wasn't such a bad thing. We played so much together. As I sit here and write this, I am overwhelmed with wonderful memories of my brother and I growing up together. I remember playing Legos, him teaching me how to shoot a granny shot, playing with his guinea pig, shooting the soccer ball, laughing and trying to talk through the wall on Christmas Eve because we were so excited and couldn't sleep. Later in life, I remember the car rides to and from school. I remember thinking I was the luckiest freshman at school because my brother was a senior and would do his best to include me with his friends. I remember the fear I felt when I found out about an incident where he had a gun drawn on him. I remember watching him walk across the stage as he graduated from high school. I remember driving him up to KU. I remember riding in my parent's car as he drove down one highway and we drove down the other.... Sarah McLachlan's song "I Will Remember You" was playing on the radio. I remember asking my mom for a paper towel so I could wipe my tears off my cheeks.
The three years when I was at home in TN and he was up at KU were hard. Our friendship was strained as he was only home for holidays and when he was home, he spent a lot of time catching up with friends. But things got better, as they always do with him. I came to KU and we had lunch almost every other day one semester. I remember meeting at Wescoe in between classes to share lunch. I remember using some of my sack lunches at my dorm, so I could pack extra food for him so he wouldn't have to buy lunch. I loved having him so close to me again, but that changed when he went to Italy.
You see, as I said before, my brother can acheive anything he sets his mind to. Once he graduated college he worked briefly for a large company, but was not too happy about it. He was then given the opportunity to teach at a college in Italy. While this was the perfect opportunity for him, Italy was very far away. Those three years we barely communicated. We would talk on the phone for birthdays, and he would come home for Christmas and once in the summer. We e-mailed occasionally, but nothing like when he and I were at KU. I did get the opportunity of a lifetime and got the chance to visit him in Italy with my parents. That was amazing. I remember spending some evenings, just the two of us, hanging out like old times... but this time it was in Italy! We went to a discotech one evening and just had a drink and had the chance to get caught up. It was great.
Now, Jeremy is back at KU teaching some finance classes and I am in the same city. We try to get together every once in a while, but it's not as much as it was when we were younger. He is still my big brother and is an inspiration to me daily. He drives me to be the best person I can be and encourages me in believing that no dream is too big to reach.
Jeremy, congratulations on acheiving another goal in your life. I love you!
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