Letter of Recommendation: Younger Brothers
What I’m Grateful For // By Matty Novick
I haven’t written too many letters of recommendation. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve written any. I’m not a teaching assistant, and I’ve never had a managerial position, so that’s not too surprising. But if I did have to write a recommendation, and I could choose anyone in the world, I would choose my younger brother. That may sound surprising, coming from a big sister many years older than he is, but there really are a number of reasons why I, a female, am recommending this particular male.
In some ways, my appreciation for my brother began before he was born. I was in kindergarten, and my friend Annie couldn’t stop talking about how she loved her brother. He was always playing with her and teaching her things like coloring, building with blocks, and counting. This concept was astonishing to me. Someone to play with outside of school! So when my mom came to pick me up that day I pleaded for someone to play with. I wanted a brother like Annie’s. My mom held me in her arms and smiled down at me and I knew that I had said all the right things.
A younger brother: At times the most annoying, but overall, the most satisfying gift my parents could ever have given me. Tommy is his name and he is exactly what I wanted. He’s the person I got to play with when I was younger. I poked and prodded him the first few weeks after my parents brought him home. He was my punching bag, the person I would play imaginary games with. Eventually he grew up, no longer an object in the eyes of my 5-year-old self but rather, my best friend.
Tommy’s transformation from a pliant and angelic baby to a full fledged male took many twists and turns throughout the years. When he was a toddler, he was downright devilish. He was infamous in preschool for biting people. He grew out of the habit, fortunately, but then he took up new hobbies, such as skiing. He’s a fantastic skier, but he’s also the skier who ruined the sport for me — when I was 10 he came crashing down on top of me. Tommy thought it would be funny to go as fast as he could down the hill without turning. Who was his target? Me. He ran right into my back.
Besides skiing, he is one big stoner. Personally I love this attribute of his because he makes me look great. Of course, my parents don’t necessarily approve of his ways — he attends school in Colorado, and when he comes home he tends to forget that weed isn’t legal here. Thanksgiving. Stoned. He spit his food into a houseguest’s face by accident because he couldn’t control his laughter. This houseguest was fabulous, wearing a fur coat inside the house, makeup perfectly painted on her face, hair coifed, yet nevertheless the target of Tommy’s mistakes. Since her very existence had annoyed me for years, I was delighted. Her supercilious manner disappeared like a mouse skittering behind the refrigerator at the sight of a cat, and what was left was a bedraggled, vain woman at a loss for words. It was masterful. Thank you Tommy.
And then there’s the teasing. Brothers are the ones who like to get a rise out of you. Tommy always knows what to say and exactly when to say it…like when I was going through a fat stage. Everyday he would comment on my pudgy appearance, but nonetheless I appreciated the honest stance he took because it motivated me to shed the pounds I accumulated from puberty. My sisters danced around the topic, trying to be polite, but Tommy’s brutal honesty was exactly what I needed.
Finally, the music. We got a large speaker last summer. This thing is as big as a fridge and Tommy has claimed it as his own. It lives in his room and every morning, regardless of the time, he plays his rap music. I am woken by the screaming of a different loud artist every morning we’re both home. The shaking of the walls, complemented with the blaring bass, brings me to a startling wake. But as annoyed as I find myself every single weekday, I have to admit it’s a beneficial thing — I have to get to my job and alarm clocks don’t work for me. Once again, Tommy comes to my rescue — not to be kind, you understand, but just to prove that younger brothers, whatever they do, get away with everything because they alone can act in ways that no one else would dare.
I recommend Tommy. I recommend younger brothers.
