By Noelle Lyons
I see him at home. I drive him to school. And when I walk through the quad with my friends, he’s there. Having a younger sibling on the same campus is a big change compared to our previous seven mile separation from the Upper School to the Middle School.
Our two year age difference has always kept us at a relatively close, but not too close, distance from each other. Only one out of my five years at Harvard Westlake so far have I ever been on the same campus with Aaron, and this 2010-2011 school year is going to be the second.
The first time was when I was in ninth grade and he was in seventh. I was just starting my freshman year, and he was the cute new seventh grader everyone fawned over. My friends already knew him, because to them he was my little brother and the resemblance was undeniable. Except for the age and height difference, it was easy to spot one of us in a crowd.
We took the same bus to the Middle School, but sat at complete opposite ends with our friends from our own grades.
Everything changed when he was still at the Middle School in eighth grade and I was at the Upper School in 10th grade. Instead we were now dropped off at the bus stop by our mother and quickly went our separate ways. It was only after school when the bus dropped us back off at our original spots that we saw each other again. This had been our daily routine for the past two years.
Yet, once again I will be seeing him during the eight hour school day now that I’m a senior and he is a sophomore. Nevertheless, he’s still the little brother everyone compared me to before.
However, now that I have my license and a parking spot at the school, I can drive both Aaron and me to where we need to be every morning.
Instead of talking to our friends on the way to school like we usually did on the bus, it’s only Aaron and me sitting in the car making conversation. I can give him advice on homework and classes I’ve already taken, as well as teachers I’ve previously had. And even when we don’t have much to say, there is still music blasting from the radio to fill the silence.
When we finally arrive at school and go to class, there will still be those moments in the hallway where I can see him out of the corner of my eye and give him a wave. Now knowing there is someone related to me on the same school campus gives me a sense of awareness I didn’t know I had.
