One thing I’ve always had—before friends, before anything else—is my siblings. My mom, having grown up in a “broken” family in the Philippines, did not want that for us. She made it a priority—if not the top priority—to make sure that we, as siblings, stayed close.
“Friends will come and go, but you will always have your brother and sister.”
“When we die, you are all each other will have.”
I’m happy to report that, to this day, we are still very close.
We fought all the time as kids (as kids do), but the good times always outnumbered the bad. And despite whatever real conflicts we may have had, I can’t really recall specific instances—which, honestly, is a testament to the love we have.
My brother introduced me to radio and video games. He listened to some of the best ‘90s R&B and hip-hop. Some of my favorite memories with him are playing Mortal Kombat in the garage. He’d pick Scorpion, and I’d choose Sonya Blade (of course). My mom would be nearby, reading her prayer cards, laughing and saying, “Go Sonya!”
A random core memory I have is him asking my parents if he could buy the “One Sweet Day” CD single from Blockbuster Video. I know—so random. But yes, they had it sitting there as an impulse buy while we were checking out VHS rentals.
I really looked up to my brother. I watched him to figure out what was cool. My love for Mariah Carey, the Spice Girls, X-Men, and Sailor Moon all stemmed from him. I obviously took it to an entirely different level of obsession—but he introduced me to all of it. He’s also the one who bought the “Wannabe” single that I eventually stole and added to my inevitable Spice Girls shrine.
In a lot of ways, he shaped what I liked—and I think I became that same kind of influence for my younger sister. A lot of the things I was into, she took a liking to as well. To this day, I still blame her for destroying my eraser collection. She thought it would be a good idea to turn them into stamps.
With my siblings, I felt safe. And even now, I still do. My parents did a really good job.
And while I’m lucky to have some amazing friends in my life now, before any of them, I had my siblings—and I never had to wonder if I belonged.
