David Takes On: His Brother

So you're probably wondering to yourself: "Where the hell have you been all these months?"

I submit to you, Gentle Reader, that I have been furthering my education.

So I'm sorry. Sue me.

I only took one class this semester. Friday nights and Saturdays for the last 4 months I have been training to become an EMT. An EMT-Basic, no less. I've decided to make good on my promise to myself to help people. In whatever way possible, I've wanted to make lives of my fellow citizens better.

But why EMS? Why not social work, or volunteering at an old folks home, or serving soup at a shelter?

Good question. I actually didn't ask myself that until just now, which I guess makes my answer all the more candid. I guess my brother had a lot to do with it. My older brother was an EMT when he was in college. When he told me he was doing it, I was proud. But I was so jealous. Why did he get all the good genes, I thought, when I got all the crap ones?

Of course, this was a long time ago, and I had a very skewed logic. He was better at a lot of things than I was. He still is. But I've found my own place in the world, or am finding it. Turns out you don't need all the good genes to be an EMT. :)

All that aside, throughout the years, regardless of the spats or misgivings about each other we've had, I have loved and admired my brother through it all. I've always wanted to be half the man he was. So when he told me that he was an EMT, it just kinda became lodged in my head. He was selfless. He was brave. He was putting his knowledge to good use. That's how it all looked to me. So when I came to a point in my life where I had to make a decision about what I wanted to do with life, his decision to be an EMT eventually guided my own.

My brother really is awesome. He's creative, rational, and most of all, smart. He has influenced a lot of my life. He's made me a lot of who I am today, and I would not have been half that without him. I've still got a lot to learn, and I'm glad every day that he has been able to teach me as much as he has, whether he knows it or not.

So consider yourself taken on, bro. I love you, man.