The other brother

I have three brothers. One from my mom (about to turn 18) and two more from my dad (and my current madrasta), ages 14 and 13.

Yes, they’re all my half brothers. But I never really used the term unless needed to specify parental connections. For me, they’re simply my brothers, with no additional labels.

I was able to watch the younger two grow up. I love them dearly and would have to constantly check myself from spoiling them. My fun times in the house are usually spent horsing around with them crazy two.

But the eldest one? We haven’t really met. He was but a mere rumor when I was just a kid. People would tell me that I have a younger brother ten years my junior. I have never really confirmed his existence until I was able to reestablish connections with my mom and lola. You see, even my mom was a stranger, just a face in pictures, up until I found the courage to send a business card before my college graduation.

I’d sometimes catch myself wondering what our first meeting would be like. Both my mom and my brother. But I’m more concerned about how it would be like with my brother. Should I start with, “hey, wuzzup?” or maybe a “dude (sabay tango ng ulo pataas baba).”

We’ve tried chatting, but mostly just due to my mom’s coaxing whenever she want to get updates, like when Ondoy came, or even because of that crazy email about radioactive rain from Japan. But our chats and SMS would never really transcend beyond, “kamusta-ok-lang” statements.

Recently, we’ve added each other up in Facebook thru my mom’s prodding. She wants to see pictures, she says.

But my unease nowadays stemmed up from their announcement that they’ll be coming home after my brother’s graduation in the US, just right after summer.

A friend of mine was right in labeling me a “pleaser.” For my brother, my first thoughts were on how to make him like me, which was kind of bizarre if you ask me. I mean, I’m the older one right? I shouldn’t be the one seeking approval. But I guess the pressure came from him striking me as this typical amboy teenager with an “I don’t care” outlook towards things.

So aside from that assumption, what do I know about him?

He’ll be graduating this year and be starting college with a 4-year scholarship grant. The plan is to continue on to med school afterwards.

So yeah, he has what I’ve dreamt of having for myself. The luxury of pursuing med school without having to worry about where to get the tuition fee payment for the next semester, or if I even can continue on to the next sem. Sure, I had breezed through high school on scholarship, even some years in UP, but med school is different. I chose not to pursue it with the birth of my second brother. My dad was struggling as it was already.

So now, I hope that I don’t rant about all that emo shit once I get to meet my mom.

How my brother is so privileged! With a Pontiac GTO 5.7 two door sports car, really cool toys, an Android phone while in High School (I got my first philips savvy during college, a hand-me-down from a graduating fraternity brother) etc. etc. etc.

No. I am not jealous. Or maybe just a tiny little bit. Just a bit. Really.

But seriously, I am happy for him, he did grow up to be such a responsible kid. And I’m equally happy that I never got the things that he has. I know that I would never be able to handle that, given my natural spoiled bratty self. I would’ve grown up a snob.

But regardless of how our lives differ, I really do wish that we’d somehow get a long.

That we’d easily hit it off and find that bond as brothers despite the 18 years of not knowing each other.

And I hope that somehow, the cliché on “blood is thicker that water” is applicable to our situation.

That calling each other brothers isn’t all about labels and legal documents, but more of being brothers in all aspect of the word. Not just by DNA matches, nor facebook family labels.

So to you my brother, be ready to meet kuya.

Sana handa ka sa topak nya.

Baka bigla kang magtaka kung related nga tayo.  Hahaha!

(image from here)

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P.S. I have just discovered that my brother has kinect. waaaa! I want one too! lech! hmmp! :P