Get To Know My Brother
It is pretty amazing what you can find out about a person just by asking a few questions. That is exactly what happened to me in this interview. I chose to interview my thirteen year old brother, Billy, and I thought I knew just about everything about him. He and I have always been close despite being five years apart. When I was asking him the questions I was kind of observing his behavior and even though I was pretty comfortable asking the questions, he almost seemed uncomfortable answering them and I say that because even thought we were at home sitting in his bedroom, he kept fidgeting with this plastic toy sword he had sitting nearby and I never knew him to get nervous or uncomfortable probably because he hides it so well connecting back to the last essay about wearing a mask.
I will say that it was pretty cool really sitting down with him and asking some of the questions I had always wondered, such as if he was nervous for his freshman year of high school and who his biggest influence is and those answers really surprised me. When I asked him about how he felt going into high school next year he stated that he was “mostly excited because I have heard a lot of good things about it”. That statement there definitely describes his personality. He has always been the type of kid to look at the bright side of things. I have only seen him upset a few times and after that he picks himself up and is back to his usually happy-go-lucky self, which is pretty awesome to see. At one point in the interview I had asked him if he had any regrets in life and I was pretty sure he would have at least one but his response was, “I would say, no”. Which surprised me at first but when I thought about it, he is the type of person to not let things bother him and he understands that we can not live in the past and we have to keep pushing forward in life.
I had asked my best friend, Maggie, who was mentioned briefly in the interview what she had thought of Billy since she has known him his whole life and she stated that, “as I have seen Billy grow up over the years, I have seen many different sides to him. Most of them have been positive, light and even funny”. That statement could not be more true and I am glad I have not been the only person who notices what an up-beat and person he is and he has always been that way, even when he has had some pretty big obstacles in his life. What I mean by obstacles is when he was younger, he had to watch someone he loves dearly go through something no one should ever have experience and I thought for sure that would have an effect on his personality but I do not think it ever did because he is so resilient. Another one of his answers that shocked me a bit was when I asked him who had the biggest influence on his life and I was kinda sure he would say me because he had expressed before that I had the biggest impact on his life but that was not the case. His answer was that, “my dad has probably been the biggest influence because he has always been supportive and even when I do something wrong he does not get too angry and just calmly tells me what I should be doing”.
Now when I had asked Maggie who she thought had the biggest impact on his life she had a totally different answer. She said that, “I think the biggest influence on Billy was his mom, without any question in my mind. She was always there for him, listened to his problems and of course gave him the support that he needed”. I found it interesting that we all had a different answer to that question. Maggie also stated that, “another reason I think his mom was the biggest impact in his life is because he was always trying to please her or impress his mom with not only what he could do for her but for others”. I could not agree with that statement more. I do see him trying to not only impress my mom but also my dad because they have such high expectations for him. When I asked Billy if there was anyone else that has made an impact in his life he said that his friends have also made a significant impact and when I asked why he replied with, “they are always joking around and they never mean any harm”. Which is very true, the friends he was referring to have known him since kindergarten and have been there for him through everything.
Coming to the end of the interview I decided to ask him if Maggie had taught him anything and he said that she has, “taught me a few things about being a good friend and how to treat your friends”. Hearing that kind of warmed my heart a bit because I did not expect him to say that she taught him anything, so hearing that was really nice. This interview definitely showed me that I did not know as much as I thought I did about my brother. It was interesting to hear some of his answers and to see his behavior as I asked the questions. It was also interesting to hear what my best friend, Maggie had to say about him because I never knew her true feelings about him. I sort of knew that she thought he was a good kid because when she and I would hang out she would always include him but I never knew how awesome of a kid she thought he was until now. It really helped me to realize just how awesome of a person my brother is and that is not just apparent to me but to my friends as well. Reflecting on the interview process, the interview was not hard to conduct but it was a bit uncomfortable as these were questions I had never thought about asking and even though I had some questions prepared beforehand I still stuttered quite a bit because Billy was not adding to much to the conversation which I was to be expected considering he is only thirteen. You could tell by his body language that he was uncomfortable as well as I mentioned earlier, he was fidgeting with a plastic toy sword the whole time and when I would look up at him from my paper where the questions were and make eye contact with him he was glance at me only for a second and then quickly look away. That was an indication that he was uncomfortable, but despite that I thought the process went very well and was relatively easy. But the process did show that people truly are complicated and I am sure there is more to him that I do not know about and that I may never know about. There was one final question I asked him before the interview ended and it was “are you proud of me?” because he has seen my ups and downs in life before and has watched my overcome things in life so I wanted to know what his answer was and he told me, “you have definitely had your ups and downs through you school year and you have overcome them and I would say I’m proud of you”. Hearing that made me kind of emotional because I did not know he felt that way so having that validation made me feel good. This interview definitely made me feel closer to him and it was a really interesting experience.
Work Cited
McNichols, Billy. Personal Interview. 10 Feb. 2020
Gorman, Maggie. Personal Interview. 10 Feb. 2020