Happy birthday bro (has it REALLY been that long?)

My brother turned 15 today. Tough to believe since he wasn't quite two yet when I moved to Oklahoma from Philly. When I lived with my father while going to college, I watched my brother on Saturday mornings while my dad and step-mother were at work. So for a couple of years, just about every Saturday, I got to change his diapers, which is not exactly a common memory shared between siblings. Heck, I'm biologically old enough to be his father.

You see, I was 15 when he was born. Thus the significance of the event. Though technically I was four days shy of being 16, so this post should really be reserved for next year, but I'm thinking about it, so I'll call it close enough (likely to just refer back to this post come next year).

As I was about to be 16 myself, I remember thinking how weird it was going to be being 32 when my brother reached 16. I remember how far away I thought it seemed and, looking back, I'm not sure whether to smile or grimace about just how different my life turned out in contrast to how I imagined it would be back then. Really, I have little to complain about, but man was I way off.

[begin side-rant]
I don't know why teachers and guidance counselors bother with those "where will you be in five years" surveys when we're that age. We have no true basis in reality from which to form our opinions. Our perception of how the world works is so narrow and even what we can see is warped by our youthful, self-interested egotism (yes, I know that's slightly redundant). Heck, I'm about to be 31 and I still don't know how the world works (in many regards at least), nor would I dare try to predict the types of trouble I'll have gotten myself into five years from now. As a matter of fact, it's barely more than five years ago that I found myself freshly divorced with a one-year old and a three-year old.
[end side-rant]


I know one thing I'll NOT be doing when my brother turns sixteen... trying with any measurable effort to imagine where I'll be at 48. This doesn't mean I won't have my usually lofty goals. But while I'd like to hope that I'll be lucky enough by then to have earned a spot in early retirement, all I can really expect is to not still be right here (you know, "at this point in my life"). As time tends to have its way with things, that's probably something, the one thing, I can count on as reasonably certain.