My brother and I were born 15 months apart. From my first day on this Earth, I’ve had a best friend. We did everything together and loved every minute of it. We were inseparable.

We were lucky and as we grew up we were still really close. We played the same sports, were both in the high school marching band, and even worked as camp counselors at the same summer camp! We’ve always had each other’s backs, no matter what the cause was. And while I am younger than him, I’ve always felt a bigger responsibility to take care of him.

We hear it all the time, “Girls mature faster than boys. That’s just how it goes.” And in most cases, I agree this is true. And it is true about my brother and I. Being the more mature one came with the feeling of being responsible for him.

Now I am in no way taking any credit away from my parents. They were/are great parents and, in my opinion, raised some pretty great kids. But there were things that only I could watch out for when it came to my brother.

Things like knowing where his inhaler was during our track meets, because he would never take it before his race and always needed it afterwards. Or making sure he knew his work schedule when we worked together. Or making sure he knew that his latest girlfriend wasn’t going to last because she had a bad case of “crazy eyes”.

These were things that I was relied on to handle and loved it. Now and then I would complain about how my back hurt from carrying him all the time, but that was all out of good fun!

I’m not saying that I held all the responsibility between the two of us. He, being my older brother, felt responsible to meddle when it came to me and boys, which was sweet even though it wasn’t necessary. I could take down my brother in less than a minute, so a boy getting overly friendly wasn’t something I needed help handling. But the effort and the willingness was sweet.

A year ago things began to change.

My brother met the love of his life, and the responsibilities of keeping my brother on track changed hands. I was no longer the person who knew his schedule backwards and forwards. I was no longer the keeper of his inhaler.

Now don’t misunderstand me and read this as me being upset about my responsibilities being taken from me. I’m convinced that part of the reason I love his fiancé so much is because she genuinely loves him with everything she has and would do anything for him. Which is exactly what a sister wants for her brother.

I couldn’t agree with him marrying someone who didn’t love and care for him the way I know he deserves. And luckily there was never a question of how much she loves him.

My brother has a new go-to girl for when he has a problem, and I couldn’t be happier for him. I am perfectly content passing on my responsibilities, and third-wheeling with them whenever I can!