Sometimes having an elder brother is painful, right? He can beat you, and this is the fact that used to annoy me the most; no matter how much I tried, during our fights, I used to be the most damaged; all I could do was cry a lot and make complaints to the parents. Ah, those childhood memories, all are gone now. Now it's a completely different scenario.
Gradually things got changed, my elder brother started to take responsibility, our Tom & Jerry days were also getting lost slowly, and after a certain point, I started to respect him as he should have been as he was the elder brother.
In my country, among the youths, there are a few stages of life where we get vulnerable and prone to making devastating decisions due to many turmoils. All we need is proper guidance to keep moving on.
So it was around 2019, the days when I was struggling to secure a seat in the admission war, and every time I was coming back empty-handed over and over again like a warrior with no victory. This stage contains so much mental pressure that every year, there are a few cases where the students end up making devastating decisions. I was also going through some extreme mental shit, enough to ruin my consciousness. But that was the moment when my elder brother came forward and told me to chill; yeah, he did express exactly like that expression. He was like; this is not the end of everything; there are lots of other factors to progress in life, chase them. When one door gets shut, others get opened; we just need to look for them properly. He pulled me up from that mental prison where I was getting stuck. Whatever he says, the rest of the family accepts without any questions, so everyone supported me too just like he did.
A few years have gone by, and he has always been by my side. At this age of mine now, where every boy gets pushed to take responsibilities, whether he is capable of taking them or not, I have the flexibility to take my time and chase whatever paths I wish to chase and has given me the freedom to try everything I am interested in with a restart button. Trust me, I am still in the exploration phase, yeah, I have a few responsibilities too, but those are of my own will. Who has enabled this opportunity? My elder brother.
You may be wondering what the topic was for this week's creative nonfiction and what I am talking about. Actually, when I read about the prompt 'reflection,' the picture of my elder brother came to my mind instantly. He is the reflection of my father, yeah, he is still there, but my brother makes me feel like someone after my father; the way he supports and gives me the shade is absolutely one in a million kinda thing. So during my odd times, I just get amazed by his words, my eyes sparkle with the tears of happiness that someone is trying to pull me up as I was started to breakdown, and the way he stands by my side just gives me a reflection of my father; I wish to have this reflection till my last days.
