Quarter of a Century.

My parents have a video of the moment I first met my brother. At 5 1/2 years old, I enter the hospital room wearing my pink sweat suit that announces “I’m the big sister.” Mom is in the hospital bed, Stephen cradled in her arms. She turns him toward me so I can see him better. I exclaim, “Whoa. He needs to stay in here and grow a bit! He’s all wrinkly!”

My parents both laugh, I check out his tiny feet, his clutched fists.

And so it begins.

Life as a big sister.

Life with a little brother.

Adventures with a partner in crime, a friend always at the ready, a best pal.

The memories, they weave in and out of my head, I grasp little snippets of our past:

There I am at ten, starting an “Earth Day Club” with our neighbors. I’ve appointed myself President (of course) and there is Stephen, my appointed VP, sitting right beside me in our “outdoor office.”

There in my brain is Farm Fair, the annual 4 day long 4-H event with horse shows and stabling our ponies and the Equestrian of the Year contest. And there in my mind is Stephen, sitting patiently with my parents, watching me give a speech for Equestrian of the Year. Again he appears, helping me unload our trailer, carrying buckets of brushes, bridles and halters over to my horse’s temporary stall. He helps me unpack, settle. He brings treats to my pony Trinket and then a few years later, Derby, my horse.

On the riding mental track, my brain is taking me further back now, to the first pony I ever leased, a lovely old boy named Joe. I can see myself after a riding lesson, untacking him outside of the old white barn. Stephen, of course, is right beside me.

“Here Steve. You hold Joe while I untack him, okay?”

My little brother dutifully holds Joe’s lead rope, while Joe lowers his head to Stephen’s 5 year old level, content with the attention of two little kids loving on him for the afternoon.

In another flash, we have moved along to somewhere else in the timeline of our youth. I can see us in our backyard pool, inventing some silly game and doing our best to get our beloved dachshund Pepper to join us in the water.

Then we are baking chocolate chip cookies one summer afternoon, Stephen sitting up on the kitchen counter while I mix the batter, adding ingredients when I tell him to.

And oh, there are our sledding adventures when we’d get a treasured snow day. Over we’d walk to the nearby Girl Scout camp together, intent on finding the one good “hill” to sled down.

Changing seasons again, I recall the afternoon we were flying balsa wood airplanes in our driveway. One hit my mother’s car window at just the right pressure point, shattering the entire thing. Clear as a bell I can see the panicked look in both of our eyes when we realized what had happened, both of us thinking there’s no way Mom will believe we really were just playing with airplanes.

My mind shifts again, this time to the summer Mom sent us both off to sleep-away camp for a week. I was a CIT that year, allowed to stay out of my cabin an hour later than the regular campers. On our first night away, I walked over to the boys’ cabins, intent on checking in on my brother. Oh, I got in trouble with his counselor who told me I needed to stay on the girl’s side, of course but I didn’t care. I wanted to check on Stevie, to make sure he was all right. More importantly I wanted to give him a hug goodnight. As I told the counselor when he sent me on my way, “he’s my little brother after all.”

These memories and moments they fire and flit around my brain, lasting but a second or two. I would hold onto them longer if I could but they don't stay. For a flash, I'm nine again, remembering an event and then, just as quickly, I'm back in the present, a 30 year old young professional.

The ever-constant though is my brother. Always by my side as kids, always up for any adventure or plan I concocted no matter how crazy. Come to think of it, even though he now lives on the other side of this country, he’s still that way.

25 years ago today my little brother arrived here on this Earth. And 25 years ago, I got the coolest job in the world. The big sister.

Happy Birthday favorite brother. You are, simply, the best.