Brotherly love

Family can be great. I mean, most people I know have good relationships with their parents and siblings. Not so much for me while growing up - it was pretty adversarial. My Dad divorced my Mom and his bossy "new family" strained our relationship; my step-Dad was certainly winning no "Father of the Year" awards. My older brother was away as often as he could be; band camp, volleyball, basketball, anything to get out of the house. Following in my older bro's footsteps, I also did my very best to distance myself from home as soon as possible - leaving my younger bro, Mike, behind to fend for himself.

Come earlier this year, and Mike is still living at home, stuck in a rut and not going anywhere. I'm given an opportunity to possibly make up for some of the, well, rift between me and the family. Don't get me wrong, I love my blood - but I never felt like I fit in, almost like being the black sheep. So Mike's moved out here to KC to live with me - time for bonding, right?

Eh, well - I'm learning things about him and his reasons for being stuck in a rut. He's extremely introverted, nervous around people, anxious in social settings, timid in making decisions, fearful of fire and knives, not willing to make mistakes, and not willing to go out.

But, being his big brother, y'know, maybe I can teach him a thing or two, get him to grow up, become his own person. So, right now, I'm playing the "10 rejections" game with him. He'll go out and ask for a job application. If they say they're not hiring - he gets 1 rejection. Otherwise, he fills out the app and moves on to the next job. 10 rejections means he'll get a prize from me. He's already up to 3 rejections today..... and 2 job apps filed.

From there, let's see if we can get him to cook a 5 course meal, eh? ;-)