living in the shadows

My brother is a senior at Michigan University. We are five grades apart in school. We have never gone to the same school since I was in kindergarten and he was in fifth grade. I remember seeing him in the hall and he would come and give me a high five at recess or lunch. I felt like I had a protector always watching over me. After that year my brother and I were never even in the same buildings again. He went to Simpson, and I transferred to Woodward after that year. He went to River Trail, I went to Autrey Mill. He went to Northview, I go to Johns Creek.

Last Saturday I was taking the ACT at Northview. As I walked down the halls, I tried to imagine what my brother’s high school life was like there. Where did he eat lunch? Who was his favorite teacher? It was weird to me that my brother and I had such parallel high school experiences, but they were still so different. I came to the class where I was going to take the ACT, and my proctor checked my ID. She looked up at me with a huge grin on her face. “You’re Michael Dawes’s little sister?!?” she exclaimed. I nodded and she was ecstatic. She went on and on about how wonderful he was and how she missed him. She called down the hallway to all the teachers and told them she had Michael Dawes’s little sister in her room. Everyone knew exactly who my brother was and they all had good things to say about him. I finally got a glimpse of what it’s like to be known as “Michael Dawes’s little sister”, and it was awesome. Some people may not like walking in someone else’s shadow, but I couldn’t think of a better, more genuine person’s shadow to walk in than my brother’s.