Sibling Rivalry

Well, I know I haven't blogged in a really long time but I have made some drafts that didn't really make the cut. The last time I blogged It was six days until school finished now it's sixteen days until it starts.

As I have gotten older, a lot of things have changed in my life. I've gone from thinking girls have cooties to thinking they are some of the coolest thing's on this earth but they do have some serious thinking issues. I've gone from being the quiet kid in the back of the classroom making A's on all his tests to being the kid who loves to socialize with his friends and amazingly still makes pretty good grades. I've also come from the point of knowing that there are some things that you can be good at and some things that you can't, to thinking I have to be good and better at everything than every one, mainly my siblings.

I didn't used to understand what sibling rivalry meant because I would be good at something and Will, my brother, would be good at something else and that was fine with me. But now as I go into my teenage years, I suddenly feel like I need to be really good at everything he is and be able to prove to my self that I'm better. I know I'm not deep down, but my brain just thinks it.

Yesterday ( and the day before), Will had one of his friends over and Molly had gone to a sleepover. Since I had nothing to do, I hung out with them and had a pretty good time. We played foot ball, smear and spear, and a bunch of video games. Everything we did I tried to do better than everyone else. Sometimes I won sometimes I lost but I finished the days feeling pretty good. Well, before Will's friend went home, my Mom and Dad called all of us out back where a tree had fallen down. my dad was sawing it up and wanted us to lay down bricks so that we could chop up the wood and then stack it on the bricks. My Mom went inside to finish dinner and get ready to go to the gym while Dad kept working on the tree. Well, as soon as my Mom left we started arguing who would be able to chop the wood, cause that's our favorite job. We each thought we should and we spent so much time arguing about it that we forgot that we were supposed to stack the bricks before anything could be done. I finally got the ax and Will got the wedge and hammer.

I cut a couple pieces until I got to a peice that was especially hard and couldn't cut it Will was to it like a bee to honey and hammered the wedge in until it could be broken. Well, after Will chopped the wood I asked for the wedge and hammer so that I could finish that piece of wood and he gave it too me. As I was chopping I was listening to my Ipod and Will thought I couldn't hear him. He was talking to his friend while I was chopping and said, " He just can't stand the fact that I might be better at something." This made me mad because I thought I was better at chopping wood than him but I just couldn't use the wedge. I started hammering faster and harder because I was getting angrier. Now, I'm pretty sure most people have tried hammering accurately and fast and hard at the same time. It doesn't work. Eventually you miss. In my case, I missed before I even got the wedge fully in. I slammed the hammer down and instead of my hammer hitting the wedge, my hand hit the wedge with a force that would have sent the wedge through the piece of wood. It resulted in my right hand middle knuckle bleeding like heck and my right hand pointer finger feeling jammed. I didn't cry ( at first) because it didn't hurt that bad. My pride was hurt more than my body. I ran up to the house to be alone and to get some ice. I sat there having a little pity party and thought to my self. " Does it really matter if he can use a hammer and wedge better than you?" " Of course it does, I'm his older brother, I'm supposed to be better at every thing.", " Well, if you are, then you have a long ways to go cause he's good at a bunch of stuff that you are and you are good at a lot of other stuff. " I finally decide that I don't have to be better at everything, just almost everything ; ) .

I know that Will is really good at something's but I like being better at things than him even though that can't always be. I guess it's just an older brother thing cause my dad said that he remembers when his younger brother was better at something than him he would practice really hard to get good at it too. So like I said, I've come a long way in the past couple years and I'm still learning a bunch of lessons.

Well I've got to go now. I hope you enjoy the rest of the summer.

Jack