Person of Influence

Influence is to character, as oceans are to whales, but not the direction I wanted to go with this. From the years of Gap clothes being the “it” thing for photos in the back of Sears to no longer being a sibling in my own house, my brother’s the one holding my sanity and change throughout my early life. The Gap clothes were the creation of my mom’s imagination at how the perfect picture would look - catholic uniforms told me otherwise. Wake up for school, same khakis and white shirt everyday. My brother being 3 years older escaped the bland clothing trend first, in high school. A little fish in a big sea. But back to me, as I watched him be able to wear new clothes everyday and I “dressed” myself the same, I became envious of the freedom. From then on I think the innocent school boy in me faded away, not to say I was some hardcore badass, but just changed. I didn’t want the crew cut clothes and static mindset instilled, and forced, upon me. My high school expression really came when he went to college though. He became the older person who came home on some weekends and had a sharp new dress style. I loathed the “older look” he wore on his shoulders. So I emulated him and got comments like, “Wow you dress better than I do now.”

Looks aren’t the only thing he was my stand point for though, of course that would be shallow of me! The “older look” was also in attitude towards life itself. I watched him go from major to major in college and got an appreciation towards how I “know” what I want to do in my life. In a way I looked at him as my guinea pig to do better, but not try and over shadow him. There is a time and place for everything. The sense that I can look to someone who has experienced life 3 years ahead of me, gives me a sense of relief that I don’t have to go into it blindly, flailing my arms around looking for stability.

Driving along the open highway, to the wonderful land of the dentist, we found ourselves looking for the closest Wal-Mart to pick up a few things for my mom. Being that I only had been driving for about a year, I hadn’t familiarized myself with the city of Newburgh. I knew where Wal-Mart was, but how to make the road we were on, into the one Wal-Mart was on. My brother said go this way, this way, and this way. The wala! We were on the thruway going completely out of our way in the wrong direction to who knows where. Freaking out because it was my first time going 65 and clearly the other people don’t care about me, my brother just guided me through the sea of ants swerving in and out to get back to the queen. Well my nest was at Wal-Mart and we still weren’t there. My brother being my guide thought it was a good time for a heart to heart about college life and the experience. Well let’s say I learned a lot about him then, but wouldn’t you know after 40 minutes of excess driving Wal-Mart was simple exit to the right. The story was my relief to the speeding cars whizzing around me and finally getting to the Final Destination.