Without You I'm Nothing

This is a picture of my little brother and I sometime around 1980.  I was probably seven which made him close to four.  When you are that age you have no idea the impact you might have on your little brother, hell I still have no idea if I made any impact on him. You can't really make out the words too well on my sweatshirt but the Zero is saying to the One in the number 10, "Without you I'm nothing." 

Sometimes I feels as if it's that way with Carter and his older brother.  Carter knows no other life than that with Tyler.  As long as he has been alive his older brother has been there right beside him.  Tyler had those two years without Carter and I don't know if he remembers any of it, but I almost feel as if he learned to be a little more self sufficient in the time before Carter was born.  Drawing comes more naturally, playing video games is a cinch to him, and he picked up reading much quicker than Carter seems to be doing. 

Carter has relied on Tyler. 

Whenever he needs help with something, he goes right to his big brother.  Not that Tyler is a huge help all of the time, but he will step in and help his little brother out.  That is of course when wants to, which when you are the older brother, can get pretty annoying when there is someone screaming at you for help.

Why is Carter wearing sunglasses? Because Tyler is.

Carter is the worlds biggest copycat.  If Tyler is walking around without a shirt on, Carter does the same.  If he is wearing sneakers instead of his usual Crocs, Carter has to follow suit.  You get the idea, whatever Tyler does, Carter is sure to follow.

It comes back to that sweatshirt.

What would Carter be without his older brother? Certainly he wouldn't be nothing.  But how much different would he be without Tyler living right by his side.  This is something we won't know about for years to come when Tyler heads off to college.  I don't know how Carter is going to react to the fact that he won't be living under the same roof as his older brother.

He might just be lost.

Carter has the idea he will be living with Tyler for the rest of his life.  In fact he said as much by saying that when he gets bigger and graduates college, he's going to move in with him.  Upon hearing that, Tyler said that if that is indeed the case, he is going to make Carter pay all of the property taxes.

Payback I guess.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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