4A — Wednesday, February 10th, 2021
W
hen I was 10, my fam-
ily packed up our
quaint little Royal Oak
home into boxes and embarked on a
treacherous journey up Woodward
Avenue, the oldest highway in the
state of Michigan. It took us a whole
15 minutes to reach our destination: a
brave new world that, a decade later,
I now regard as my childhood home.
Well, our childhood home — Josh, my
brother, lived there too.
When choosing between the house
on the corner and one nestled in half-
way down the dead-end block, my
parents opted for the peace and quiet.
It was the right choice. There were
awesome kids living across the street
to play with when we were younger
and more when I was old enough
to babysit. But when Josh and I first
moved in, our favorite thing about the
new house was the ice cream store on
the corner of the block.
Little people live in little worlds,
so we did not yet know that “the ice
cream store” had a name. All we knew
is that we wanted our parents to take
us down for a $2 cone. We made up
skits and wrote ourselves songs to
perform for our parents to convince
them. Josh and I knew from a young
age how to join forces to fight for the
common good. I’m not sure what it
means that our weapons of choice
were song and dance.
Talking to other University of
Michigan students, I came across
many stories that sounded just like
Josh’s and mine. As kids, we devised
our own unique forms of entertain-
ment bolstered by the support of
those around us. If we were sur-
rounded by other kids around our age
all the time, then we were inclined to
come up with some pretty creative
ways to combat the boredom.
For many, those other kids were
their siblings. Recent studies have
shown that about 80% of Americans
have at least one sibling. LSA senior
Andrew Kohrman has two.
Korhman described his siblings’
early relationship as “hierarchical.”
Each of the three of them occupied a
different role. The youngest, his sis-
ter Sydney, could always get him and
his brother Alex in trouble with their
parents. The oldest, Alex, was tasked
with conceiving the ways they’d pass
the time, including one game which
can only be described as an extreme
form of dodgeball.
“The game that (Alex) invented for
us was he would hit these balls at us
and we would try to dodge them, and
I don’t know how that came to be as
we enjoyed it,” Kohrman said. “But he
was the one that was always inventing
the games for us to play, and he was
the one that was always in charge of
changing the rules in his favor.”
In childhood, Kohrman came to
appreciate his siblings as role models,
teammates and confidants. For many
of us, this introduction sets the foun-
dation for an ever-evolving relation-
ship that matures, as we do, over time.
My parents met in law school, so
naturally in our house, you didn’t get
anything you didn’t need without
justification. This meant that Josh
and I had to put on skits to earn ice
cream and do chores to earn allow-
ance. When we grew older and could
no longer exchange our cuteness for
cash, I walked down to the same ice
cream store Josh and I used to fre-
quent as kids for a job. When Josh
was 14, he did the same.
At this point, he and I had settled
into our own lives. We have an awk-
ward age gap: Being three years apart
meant that after I graduated fifth
grade, we didn’t go to the same school
for six years. We were on different
schedules and at different points of
our lives. Between dance team for me,
rock climbing for him, newspaper
for me, musical theater for him and
homework for the both of us, work-
ing at the ice cream store was the only
time we got to see each other.
We each had a window into each
other’s lives again. Not only that, but
we had a common experience to
bond over. I’d say that working to-
gether was definitely what catalyzed
the close relationship Josh and I have
today. Ever since then, he’s felt like
not only my baby brother, but also my
friend.
For many people, their relation-
ship with their sibling will be the
longest one in their life. You bear wit-
ness to every one of their accomplish-
ments and misfortunes. According to
Kohrman, his siblings know practi-
cally everything about him.
“It’s a very unique thing for sib-
lings, because they’ve known you
since whenever they open their eyes …
from day one to now,” Kohrman said.
Korhman said his relationship with
his older brother blossomed when
Alex left for college. Suddenly, there
was an empty seat at family dinners
and a vacant room at the end of the hall.
Kohrman had to put in extra effort to
maintain him and his brother’s rela-
tionship. He would call Alex up every
once in a while, just to stay in touch.
With his younger sister Sydney,
Kohrman had it easier. He says they be-
came much closer when Sydney joined
their high school’s marching band and
they had a reason to spend a lot more
time together. Their relationship was
imbued with a common interest and a
common friend group, facilitating its
evolution into something more signifi-
cant than just extreme dodgeball partners.
“Interacting with her and then my
friends at the same time together kind of
transitioned it from sibling to more of a
friendship,” Kohrman said.
For LSA freshman Jessica Cho, that
transition occurred much earlier. Cho
described her older sister Maddie as
“protective,” a quality which she admits
she didn’t always appreciate enough.
“I always kind of noticed that we
were a partnership, like we would stick
together, but I didn’t see that she wanted
to help me grow and help me improve
until like, middle school,” Cho said.
Cho looked up to her older sister.
Maddie would pick her up from school
every day, and that became a time for
the two of them to catch up, debate or
just chat. It was at this point that their
mom got remarried, so there were a lot
of changes happening at home for the
two of them. Between turbulence in
their family situation and the general
tragedy that is middle school, Cho came
to understand that Maddie was her rock.
“The respect (I felt for her) sort of
transitioned my intimidation (around) her
into appreciation,” Cho said. “But at the
same time, the intimidation is still there.”
Cho moved in with Maddie about a
month and a half ago. Nowadays she
and her sister are on opposite schedules.
Maddie is working as an EMT and Cho
is in her second semester of college, so
the two rarely have time to spend togeth-
er. Still, they’ve established a tradition
of family dinners which serve a similar
purpose to those middle school car rides
home.
“From her job, a lot of the stuff (Mad-
die) sees can be very traumatic, and she
is good at handling that and processing
that and sticking through it in order to
help people,” Cho said. “And she does
the same thing for the people that she
cares a lot about. And I think that’s one
of the most notable things about her.”
The heart grows up fonder:
A commentary on sibling love as it enters into adulthood
BY MELANIE TAYLOR, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
statement
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com