The trusty sidekick

This post is a little late – his birthday was two days ago – but today is also the day he was supposed to enter the MTC, if it hadn't been for this.

Matt and I were not always the best of friends. In fact, when we were little, I couldn’t stand the kid. He annoyed me as only a little brother can annoy his sister.

One day when he was taller than me, I sat down at the piano and said “Matt, sing this with me.” He hesitated a bit. We were both nervous to sing in front of each other – it would take a lot of time and practice to get us over those fears – but it would eventually make a world of difference.
I realized the things that bothered me about Matt were the very things I didn’t like about myself; he was just like me! Only more patient, less critical, more athletic, more disciplined. More spiritual.
(He was also best friends with the younger brother of the boy I liked, so I grilled him every time he returned from their house. It’s very handy to have a sidekick as a spy.)

And so we became friends. I told everyone he was my bodyguard, and took him everywhere with me. It didn’t take long before my friends figured out that he was the cooler sibling. They started planning sleepovers at our empty house – with HIM. They thought I didn’t know what was going on! Ha! I wasn’t angry with Matt, just with my friends who slept at MY empty house the night before MY birthday. Without me.
Once again, I grilled him for info. and he delivered what he could. Awesome.

Finally, during my senior year, we were in the same school together. He was such a cool freshman, most people didn’t even know he was a freshman. We sang on Sunday nights and stayed up late during the week. We went on juice runs, baked late-night pies to eat with ice cream and Mother. We played (life-like) Atari tennis on the Playstation until Dad made us go to bed.
Oh, and one time we broke the entertainment center, so we gave Mom two quarters to help with repairing costs. She couldn’t even pretend to be mad after that.

College was hard, so sometimes Matt came to visit – with Slice, as fate would have it. We talked about boys and school and cars (Matt’s an expert on all three). My roommates and friends said, “If he’s not married when he gets off his mission, I’m calling him every day.”
And I wondered how we would ever find a girl good enough for my brother.

In July of 2007, we took a road trip to St. Louis, Nauvoo, and Church history sites in between. Matt took pictures of the car, mostly to make fun of my parking jobs like this:

But I didn't mind because the trip was fun - and the company was the best. We drove, read Harry Potter #7, camped, and took pictures. And ate out of a salad bag, with waterbottles cut in half for cups. It was great.

Now we're gearing up to say good-bye to this kid (although it's been postponed), knowing that he'll be pretty much the best missionary ever. I envy whoever is next to claim him as a sidekick....or, as the case may be, a bodyguard. The best one you could ask for.