Growing up with my brother we had the typical sibling rivalry; we competed in about almost everything. Without getting into a long detailed story, when I was in the 9th grade and Eric was in the 6th grade, we moved out of our high school’s district and was therefore supposed to get a district exception to continue attending the schools we were already attending. A good friend of the family let us use his address so we didn’t have to go that route. Anyway, by my Senior year, Eric became a Freshman and attended the high school I was at. By this time Eric was a stellar soccer player and any sport he played he excelled in it. As good as he was in sports, he also maintained his grades and was an honor roll student. Before I forget, The friend of the family I mentioned earlier also had a son who was a year older than me. The school caught up with our false address scheme and gave me the ultimatum of turning in an application or else I would have to leave the school and attend the school in the district I lived in. I guess because I was going to be a Senior, they allowed my application. Eric, however, did not fill an application. One day towards the end of the school year a dumbass pulled a knife on him and they got into it. Of course Eric kicked this guy’s ass and they both were caught and sent to the Principal’s office. Seeing that Eric did not have an exception, he was kicked out this school to attend the other school. No investigation and it didn’t matter that he attributed to the school’s athletic department. This became a turning point in his life we now look back and call HELL.
Everything he accomplished up until then went down the drain. He started hanging around punks and got heavily into the drug scene. He ended up dropping out of school. Over the course of the next 12 years (‘82-’94) he was in and out of jail for mostly shoplifting to support his habit, parking violations up the ying yang, and making my life miserable. There was a period before he rented a house with some of his addict friends that he lived with me. He stole from me almost trashed my car on a couple of occasions, and a few other things. He’s my only brother and I put up with a lot of his shit before he took it too far. Then out of no where he started going back to church and completely made a big turn around. That was going really well up until our mother passed away and the insurance money kicked in. Well, you know how THAT went. Within a year his money was gone. He was then given the ultimatum to either go to prison for 5 years or turn himself in to rehab. He took the later and spent two years total. The first month he couldn’t have any contact with the outside. Eventually he could go out but that was only to work … they got him a job while he was in there. Later he got weekend passes. I think that by the end of his first year he was able to leave completely with two or three sessions a week. I’m happy to say that he’s been clean now for 9 years.
Over the last few years he’s gone back to school, has a really great job, and is now in the process of building his dream home with his wife which should be done building in July. He has three children- two girls 8 and 5 and a son who will be 3 in August.
Habanero chips are overrated. Jalapeno chips are way better.
On that note, have a great weekend and have a fantastic Easter!
