Yesterday was my little brother's 19th birthday. I don't think I blogged about him during my month of thankfulness a while back so now seems like a good time. Not only was yesterday Chad's birthday, but it was also the day of his winter sports banquet. I know I've said this before, but he got all of the athletic genes. ALL of them. He's been a three sport athlete for the past 4 years: football, basketball, and track and he was a starter on the varsity team in both football and basketball. Our house has been overrun with footballs, basketballs, baseballs, tennis balls, occasionally a soccer ball, basically any kind of ball that mom would let him have in the house for the last 19 years. Including a nerf basketball goal in the kitchen. If you throw something at me and I flinch instead of catching it... Chad is the reason why. Haha. He's intelligent too. His latest report card was on the fridge at home and contained only As and A+s. And the kid's not taking easy classes his senior year: AP Calculus, AP Physics, and his third year of Spanish to name a few. He's heading to Purdue next year to major in Engineering Technology. Given these achievements, you might think my bro's a 3, right? Wrong. I'm 95% sure that he's a
healthy 9 (which integrates to a 3), and I'll tell you why.
My brother is one of the most laid back people I know; he gets it from my dad. It takes a lot to get him angry, or upset, or super excited about anything. He just takes life as it comes, one day at a time. He doesn't get too worked up over anything. He also takes charge when needed and is a good leader, from what I've seen. He knows what needs to be done and does what it takes to make it happen, whether it's taking extra work home for a group project or calling plays on the court. One of the coolest things about Chad, though, is his humility. He's a good leader and people respect him. A lot of that respect comes from the fact that he doesn't take things too far. He's not arrogant about his achievements and he doesn't even like the limelight when people try to shine it on him. Last night at his sports banquet, his basketball coach called him "the most humble athlete I've ever coached." This was right before he awarded Chad the Mental Attitude Award, his second Mental Attitude Award of the year (he was also awarded it by his football coach last fall.) I'm proud of all of Chad's athletic achievements, but I'm even more proud of how he handles himself on the court and with his teammates. Honestly, after this year no one will care that he made 6 3-pointers in the sectional game (which he did), but he'll carry his attitude about achievement and working as a team a whole lot further in life.
Chad has always been popular, for as long as I can remember. When I was in 5th grade, my friend Joel told me that my brother was cool and I wasn't. It was an on-going bit that we both laughed at because Joel was a big tease, but looking back... I'm pretty sure that he was serious. Haha. So my brother is part of the popular crowd at school, but the thing is... he's part of
every crowd at school. Now, I may be biased and in the dark as his sister, but I really don't know anyone that really doesn't like Chad. He is the easiest person to get along with (except when you wake him up, but most people don't see him like that:) ). He's friends with everybody: the jocks, the geeks, the ag guys, the outcasts, younger, older. Doesn't matter. He's also a big hit with kids. The cheerleading coach's son is about 6 yrs old and he follows Chad like a puppy. There's also this little girl at church named Haley. My mom says that almost every Sunday she feels this little tap on her arm and turns to find Haley standing there, asking "Did you bring Chad with you today?" Haha. She even comes to sit with our family sometimes. They all like him so much because he pays attention to them. When other teenagers won't give the little kids the time of day, Chad talks to them, teases them, and makes them feel special.
So that's my "little" (I guess I should say younger) brother in a nutshell. I'm pretty proud of him and I'm excited to see what he's going to do next in life. :)
Oh, and he got the curls too... ^^ :)
My brother, Chad, was about 2 years old when our Uncle Lee began dating Danielle, who is now our aunt. It didn't take long before Chad was in love. He thought Danielle was pretty much the coolest person ever and put on his best 2 yr old flirting act whenever she was around (including being right by her side wherever she was at, note picture.) Whenever we would see Lee and Danielle out somewhere, my mom would tell Chad, "Look, there's Uncle Lee and Danielle" and then whistle. To a 2 yr old who copies everything anyone says, a whistle comes out as words: "Wooooo wooooo." So for Chad's toddler years, my aunt was affectionately known as WooWoo. Uncle Lee and WooWoo. (Actually it was more like Uncle Wee and WooWoo because Chad had trouble with his L sounds back then. :) )
