For those of you who have had the pleasure of experiencing those loving pains in the butt we call little brothers, I'm sure you have confronted one or more of the following experiences with your parental sharing counterparts. Although they may know how to drive you absolutely bonkers, we all know life wouldn't be the same without them, from sucking up to Mom or Dad, to keeping secrets, and exploiting them.

To my little brother,

Thank you for teaching me patience. I'm talking about the, "I will sit her with my finger one inch away from your face every time I say don't touch me" kind of patience. The patience you taught me when you would turn the television up on purpose when I was trying to do homework, and then pretended you couldn't hear me screaming at you to turn it down because, oh yeah, the television was too loud. You pushed every single one of my buttons and you were the master at it. Although I was neither patient or kind in any of these situations, they taught me how to be when it truly mattered.

Thank you for always suffering through those awful parties with me that we were dragged to against our will.

When our parents wouldn't stop talking and we had eaten nothing except finger sandwiches for hours. In these situations you were always someone to complain to, and sit with tiredly on the couch, and irritatingly observe the other kids there, who always seemed way too excited to socialize with each other.

Thank you for always standing by me when we had to free ourselves from those sticky situations with Mom and Dad.

When our shenanigans happened to get the best of us both, and we realized that the fight is no longer between each other but between us and our parents, I could have never asked for a better wingman. It' s practically magic how much easier it is to wiggle your way out of punishment just by being on the same page, because for once (in the eyes of Mom and Dad) we actually seemed to be getting along.

Although I hardly ever paid attention to it, thank you for knowing why who my true friends were, and more importantly, weren't. You called them all.

We went through that stage somewhere around middle to high school where everyone was trying to figure out who their friends were. Well, I am here to tell you that when I was in this spot, I wish I would have listened to that little voice in the background, pointing out those exact individuals that would one day break my heart. The silent eye rolls whenever I would talk about them, and the subtle yet irritated stomp to your room you made sure was heard whenever said person/people were coming over. You knew who the good and the bad ones were before I ever could have.

But lastly and most importantly, thank you for being a best friend, a partner in crime, and someone I could count on to understand without ever having to speak a single word.

- Your sister

The truth is that no matter how much they push your buttons or pull your hair, no matter how many times you ask them not to do something and they go right ahead and do it anyway, no matter how long they take to get out of bed in the morning, or how they somehow manage to eat all of the food, they are entirely irreplaceable. They will always be there to understand you when no one else does, because the day they came into this world, it changed your life.