After 16 years of living with my 18-year-old high school graduate brother here in Beijing, he’s finally moving out and starting his own life in Montreal, Canada.
I feel like it’s very rare when siblings actually get along with each other, and my brother and I aren’t an exception. As most sibling relationships do, ours continuously fluctuated as we grew. We used to be best buddies when we were little and played with each other all the time, but at one point when we reached middle school and started leading our own lives. We were practically estranged roommates who happened to have the same parents. Of course, as per the typical sibling dynamic, we still had stupid, petty arguments like whose turn it was to wash the dishes or who was going to do the laundry this time. But overall, we mostly kept to ourselves, holed up in our own spaces.
In the few weeks before he left for Canada, however, I found myself and my brother being nicer to one another. I don’t know if it was because we both knew this lifelong “roommate arrangement” was coming to an end (for the time being), but we opened up to each other a little more and went out of our way to do nice things for one another; he bought me food without being asked and I helped him clean his room.
We may be extremely annoying to each other, but the fact of the matter is that we’ve never been separated for more than a few days. Even if it wasn’t by choice, we’ve been through a lot together, especially at the height of the pandemic when we had to travel across the world so we could spend time with both our parents. Soon, I probably won’t see him for a whole year.
Now that he’s not living with us anymore, I keep finding myself having these realizations of the little things that aren’t going to happen from now on. For example, I never really had to use my keys to open the door whenever I got home from school because he would always be there first to open the door for me. But now that he’s in Canada, I will have to make sure I always have my keys. He would also always fall asleep whenever we went out to eat, and I would always take selfies with him, but I can’t do that anymore (until I go to Canada myself). On top of that, I will now be the one to wash the dishes, since we used to take turns (and would always get into an argument about whose turn it was). But now, it will always be me.
It’s quite bizarre that I’ll be spending my last year here in Beijing living like an only child. Who knew someone so annoying in your life could be kind of important to you? Even though those dumb little fights we had were going to be the death of me, I’ll honestly miss having some drama around the house to keep me on my toes. However, a year from now, when I move into a two-bedroom apartment with him when I go to Canada, it’ll be like he never left (I believe).
Kuya, congrats on graduating high school and on being the overall good and kind person that everyone else (except me) says you are. You’re an okay brother, I guess…
This article appeared in the jingkids 2022 Teen Takeover issue
