My Not So Little Anymore Brother

First, before I attend to the stated subject matter I have to clear up a spelling error I have been making for the past few weeks. It has been drawn to my attention (by my beloved Alissia) that fiance is the spelling for a man who is engaged to be married and that fiancee is the spelling for a woman. (Yes, I'm aware there is also an accent mark but I'm just not motivated enough to figure out how to type it in on my uber English keyboard). I honestly was under the misconception that fiance was a gender neutral term applying to anyone in a state of pre-married commitment. I stand corrected. My fianceE is most definitely not a fiance. Kieta Lynn, who majored in English, was wrong about something that fell in the grammar/spelling/punctuation category. The many friends who I annoyed by correcting their word choices over the years may all collectively snicker, point and giggle. Guilty as charged.

Moving on. When I was little, growing up in San Diego, I always thought it would be super cool to work at Sea World. Specifically I wanted to be a Shamu trainer until I figured out that fish are slimy and smelly. I don't want any part of touching them to feed to a killer whale or orca to be more precise. I do still love dolphins though and have fed them stinky smelly fish on several occasions (though I haven't swam with one yet - it's on my bucket list). At any rate, I couldn't do it all the time. Not even for dolphins.

My brother,technically "little" because he is almost 8 years younger than me, is almost a foot taller than me. He served in the Marine Corps for four years (SEMPER FIDELIS and thank you to all of our nation's servicemen!!) but for the past few years has worked for Sea World in their education department. He can tell you all sorts of interesting fish (and not so fish) facts and is a beloved counselor of summer camp sleepovers and the like. It's a pretty cool gig and he's great at it, as validated by the fact that he was chosen as employee of the month for May this year.

Last night, when I logged into Facebook, I noticed that my brother had updated his profile picture to one where he was IN the tank for the dolphin show, wearing a spiffy Sea World logo website. My brother isn't a dolphin trainer so I knew that something super awesome must have gone on for this picture to exist. I just love when Facebook informs me of major goings on of my friends and family. It's a godsend for keeping up with everyone, even though Alissia remains convinced it's evil.

When my brother called to give me the story, I was proud (and perhaps the Tiniest bit, ok a lot a bit jealous) to hear that because he had been chosen as employee of the month, he was given the opportunity to get his picture taken anywhere in the park. A lot of people choose to take a picture with a favorite animal but my brother is never one to settle for ordinary. He is a goofy and creative soul (it runs in the family) and so he decided to ask if he could get a picture in the dolphin show wet suit. Once the calls were made, he not only got to be in the suit but pose on different parts of the stage and at the end be IN the tank.

There simply are not words to express how absolutely amazeballs I find this accolade. In fact, my brother could tell me tomorrow that he was given a promotion to a 6-figure executive position and it still wouldn't top getting to swim in the tank for the dolphin show.

Aside from how much I love love love the fact of the actual experience, what I love even more is my brother's sense of fun, adventure and the lovable way he stands out from the crowd simply by being himself. He's never been much of one to do stuff just because someone else would like it or to stop doing something because others thought it was dumb. Of all the qualities I could hope for him to develop in life, that's the best. The confidence to just be himself because he knows that he is awesome. He's not cocky... in fact he's at the age where girls repeatedly tell him he's "too nice"... you know, because young girls haven't dated enough jerks yet to be over that attraction to guys who treat them like crap. SMH. He's not a bad looking kid either, but he gets that from my parents, so he can't take all the credit there.

I love my brother. I'm guessing that most people do But seriously, I don't just love him because we are related. I love him because he's just a cool human being. We don't see eye to eye on everything but we respect each other, we help when we can and being many states apart, we don't see each other often enough. If I didn't think American politics were pretty corrupt and off track, I'd nominate him to office... though not President. I wanted to be the first female occupant of that office when I was a kid and dude, he already has Sea World. 

John, though you probably don't read my blog because you're in your 20s and way to cool to sit around reading the ramblings of your aging sister, I just wanted to say how much I love you. You're the best brother I could ever ask for annnnnd I'm sorry for taking money out of your piggy bank when you were a kid. If you fly to Chicago, I'll buy you a beer. :)