I truly believe that it is impossible to succeed over my older brother, Caleb. No matter what I do, he does it better. If I write a good book report, he writes an even better, amazing one. If I set high goals for myself, his goals are set higher. If I were to become president, he would create a new position more powerful than mine.
I was sitting in an Intro to Film class in my second semester at the community college in my hometown. In front of me sat Caleb and his fiance’. Some of the other students were snacking on chips or candy and drinking sodas while they patiently awaited the next movie we would be studying. I sipped on my usual choice of Vanilla Coke. The teacher announced that before he started the film, he was going to return our graded critique paper that we had written on the previously watched films.
I began to grow anxious as my pulse quickened. Caleb and I had created a small competition in that class, in which he always defeated me. On the previous critique papers, I received an ‘A-‘ while he received an ‘A.’ When I had been given an ‘A’ Caleb was given an ‘A+.’ He was constantly the conqueror in the sibling battle of higher grades. And each high grade he achieved was paraded in front of me with showful pride. In other words, he liked to rub it in. But now, in this minute, was the moment of truth. Had I succeeded over Caleb in this next paper? Was I at last victorious over my persistently prosperous older brother?
When I was handed my paper, my eyes found the grade at the bottom. Suddenly, the dark clouds lifted from my hopeful mind, and the sun shone through. I had gotten an ‘A+’ at last! Overjoyed, I announced proudly to my brother, “I got an ‘A+’!! A perfect score! There is no way you could beat that!”
Caleb was handed his own paper, which he had written about a complex Japanese film. He looked at his grade and handed the paper to me with a sarcastic smile.
“Oh, really?” he inquired, “Well, what does that say?”
At the bottom of his paper, beside his ‘A+’ the teacher had written: “Caleb, may I please have this paper back so I can use it as an example for my future classes?” Those dark clouds of rivalry again covered over my joy and my hope.
“Well,” I said down-trodden, “I still got a perfect score, and that’s all I really want.”