Have you ever had an older friend that mercilessly teases you (in a fun way) and is always there for you when you need them, sometimes even when they are going through a hard time too? Well, I do. His name is Chris and he is like the big brother I never actually had. Even though he is in a lot of trouble and has some not-so-great habits, I still kind of look up to him.

So, this is my big brother. He is in high school and we have known each other probably since I was three or four years old. He is really cool too, but he got me into some strange music (i.e. death metal, metal, screamo, etc.), and he teases me about my quirks pretty much all the time… of course I always threaten to murder him and stage it to look like suicide…but he is always there for me no matter what, and Chris goes through a lot of crap everyday. When he saw that I was single, he got a hold of me on Facebook and told me that if that guy had hurt me, he would beat him up. It’s nice to hear, even if you tell them not to because they will get into more trouble.

That’s another thing, Chris gets into a lot of trouble. It’s not completely his fault though, he was raised that way. His mom has five to six kids and is on her third husband (who is in jail fro something to do with drugs at the moment) and also has several bad habits of her own that have been passed on to Chris. It’s pretty much just smoking and not a lot of willingness to accept help…and of course not always thinking about how their actions will affect others. Chris’s mom used to always keep him at home to take care of the house and his younger siblings. But, and here comes the biggest reason I look up to him, he is almost always happy whenever I talk to him. I love to hang out with him because he always makes me smile. Even though Chris is great, he is in a lot of trouble. He is being charged with a bunch of different things because he made fun of a kid in a wheelchair (I don’t look up to him for that…). Now, this kid gets made fun of a lot and I guess Chris was the last straw. I always feel so horrible because whenever he starts getting a little bit of good luck, bad luck comes along and slaps him in the face, but he is still a good friend to everyone he cares about.

I think everyone should have someone like that in their lives, and sometimes you might need to be that person to one of your friends. Maybe for someone who cuts or has attempted suicide. Being the friend on the other side of that situation is absolutely terrifying because you never know if you might lose them in the next moment or if they fell asleep and will be fine by the time morning comes around. Let me tell you something, once you hear anything like that from a close friend, you will be looking out for them wherever they are. Sometimes, knowing how it feels to have a friend who cuts can help you out too. A while ago, I used to think about cutting, but then I would remember how terrified I felt when my friend was cutting and how it progressed to something worse.

Regardless of whether you are someone’s unbiological sibling, or you have been an unbilogical sibling to someone else, it really is a gift to have people that treat others as if they were family. I don’t know what this world would be like if we couldn’t depend on each other.