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

