Siblings

For almost 10 years of my life I was the only child in my world, and I'm going to admit I was spoiled rotten. My mother is an only child; therefore, my nana treated me as if I was her 2nd child. I had love all over me from every which way imaginable. Then, my little brother came along and ruined the party. He couldn't take away the love that my grandparents were showering me, but at home I had to learn to share my parent's love. It was rough for a while, and like my relationship with my mother it took time to cultivate. But now, it is a whole different story. I could not be more proud to have Jr. (as he is so affectionately called) as my brother. We may not talk a lot, and we may not spend a lot of time together, but I now have a sense of connectedness to him. I would do anything for him and his family. I really enjoyed the time that we got to spend working together during my short stay in Jacksonville last year. I love his children to death. But mostly I admire his ability to do what he is doing at such a young age. He has a family...a full fledged family...2 children a house and a live in girlfriend...at the age of 21. At that age there is no way that I would have been able to take on that responsibility, but he has done so. I admire the fact that unlike most young men his age, and hell some men older than him, he stepped up to do what was necessary to take care of his children. He took responsibility for his actions, and he is a father to his boys. I look at him and I think to myself "job well done mom and dad".

I know a lot of people would look at his situation and say how can I believe that my parents did a good job with him. Even though my brother started his family young, he is by far no dummy. If you take the time to sit down and talk to him and not just judge him by his appearance, you would be able to see that he is a VERY smart young man. Believe it or not he can tell you just as much about what is going on in the world of politics, finance, and business as he can about what's going on in the world of music. A lot of people criticized my mother for not forcing him to go off to college, but after having a conversation with my mother about him yesterday, she did what was right. She stated that "he is coming into things at his own time". While he wasn't interested in going off to college when he graduated from high school 3 years ago, he is very interested now. My mother works hard to set up not just a lifestyle, but a way of life for him, for me, for our children, for her family. I think that sometimes she is disappointed that I don't want to go into the "family business", but she realizes that I have to be my own person. But my brother is there, up under her wings, learning the family business (which is very lucrative), and some day he will be able to branch off, or take over. And I believe that he will be just as successful as my mother.