Dear Little Brother,

I can count on you for anything. I cannot even begin to imagine life without you. You are my true best friend. I tell you a lot, I know, but it’s because you are the person I trust the most in my life. It’s funny how growing up we fought all of the time, but now as we’ve gotten older, we’ve just become close friends.

Now that I’m in college, things are a little different. I can’t just walk into your room and ask if you need help with any school work or even tell you things that happened during my day. I have to call, text, or even snapchat you to find out what has been going on with you, and vice versa. It also makes me sad to think that you don’t have another sibling at home you can talk to about these things. I always had you, but I want you to know, that I am just a phone call or text away.

If that really didn’t give you a hint that I miss you, here’s one: I miss you. As crazy as it seems, I miss driving you around when you didn’t have a license. Those early morning drives to school were filled with us listening to One Direction because you knew they were my favorite. I miss picking on you when I would find out you liked someone and pressuring you to find out what her name was. I also miss you coming to me for advice on anything and everything, even if I had never dealt with it before. I even miss the fights we had. Most of the time they were small, stupid fights just to see who would get into trouble with mom and dad.

You will always be my best friend. You will always be the guy that I will come to before anyone else. I know it seems hard now, but in a year and half, you’ll be in college too, little brother. You will get to experience the world for the first time without any parental supervision (which is nice most of the time.) I would only hope that you would come to me for advice on how to deal with this sudden freedom. As the time gets closer, I will try to share as much as I can about what I have learned while being away, so maybe you can be that much more prepared.

I don’t know what I would have done if I had been an only child, and whether you like it or not, you’re stuck with me. You don’t really have the option to choose your family, but I don’t think I’d choose anyone else.