An open when letter to my brother:

Gavin,

I am not really sure when to tell you to open this so let's just say you can when you are having a hard time. You are a freshman in college now and I am so proud of you. I lowkey miss doing life with you and annoying mom and dad with every fiber of our beings. College can be scary, and it can suck a lot of times, but it is also the most fun times of your life.

I know that throughout our life, me and you have been through some stuff. Life has not been kind to us all the time and we have for sure had our ups and downs. I think it is safe to say that you have 100% hands down made me the maddest a person could ever make me, I think siblings have that affect though. Growing up I always thought of us as very different. For anyone that knows you now, they would say you are very outgoing and won't shut up, but when you were little this was definitely not the case. You were shy and very conservative and protective to our family.

Knowing us now, most people mistake us as twins. The amount of times I meet someone from high school, and they say, "you and Gavin are identical you even talk alike." You take after me, congratulations! I am so unbelievably proud of you for the person you are becoming. For succeeding so well in high school and making a difference in anywhere you go. Not everything you encounter in life will come to you easy and I know you know this. But you have so much power inside of you to make it all look easy.

IU tailgate Genna Thomas

You are hands down one of the best people I know Gavin and I am so lucky to be your sister. You have grown from just being my little brother to my best friend that I tell everything to. You roast me like none other and give me the hard truth a lot, but it always betters me in the end. Your drive to work hard in life and succeed at LITERALLY EVERYTHING you do is so inspiring. When you push me in the gym to keep doing my ab workout, when you let our black lab jump on my white comforter cause you know it really grinds my gears, when you come and jump on my bed to wake me up in the morning or when you try to beat kids up for accidentally running into me, you truly do it all. Making fun of mom with you will forever be my favorite time or fighting over the speaker for so long that we are continuously just bumping each other out of the Bluetooth connection.

Sharing our passions together is one of the biggest blessings. Getting to lead young life with you and tell kids our story is so rewarding. We have talked about getting matching tattoos since you were 16 but now that we finally have them, I couldn't be happier. It continuously reminds me that I always have you in this crazy life and that we can always 'seek joy' in every situation.

You have the world in your hands Gavin and you haven't even realized it yet. Thank you for everything you do for me and making having a little brother one of the best experiences of my life. For being just as psycho as I am and for always choosing the good out of situations. You make me a better version of myself.

Here's to you brother because you have so much ahead of you. I love you.

Love, Genna