Pair of Boots

My younger brother, Brent, has always been the person that is always wanting to see the smile on people's face. Years ago, when I was in fourth grade, I was in a JROTC program with at my school. There we were required to wear the camouflaged uniform with the black boots and everything along with it. Well, Brent always watched my clean and shine my boot and always teased me, telling me my mom was going to send my off to the army that's why I was in the JROTC. After my fourth grade year, I transferred to Winslow, so that was the end of my "army" days.

As for my uniform, it became Brent's Halloween costume that year, but the boots I could not give up, so they remain inside my closet. Occasionally, I would wear them when I would go paintballing with my brothers, though after awhile I stopped going. Every weekend Brent asked if he could wear my boots and he was still in preschool at that time, so the boots were big on him and practically reached his knees. He would not take no for answer and I ended up having to lace the boots up for him and he would run around all over the house them. By then, I ended up giving my boots to him because I had no use for them anymore. Brent would always wear these boots everywhere he went: school, to town, to play outside, and once even to bed. He absolutely was in love with these shoes and they lasted up to his third grade year.

During his third grade year, he was given an assignment to write about something he likes the most and you guessed it, he wrote about the boots. I had never seen him so happy about something he wrote and he had a picture above it, which was cute because he really emphasized the black on the boots and the rest he drew in pencil. His story went a little something like, "My big sister gave me her black boots. I really like my black boots because I can go play paintball with my sister and brother."

It wasn't until after I read those two sentences, I understood the saying, "Other man trash, is another man's treasure". Throughout our years there has been something at one point that we saved from being thrown away. The little meaningless things that we have no use for, might beneficial for another. Being the oldest of my two brothers there's been numerous things that I wanted to throw away but they wanted it and made something better out of it. Like how I was really into drawing but I stopped because I didn't have time to draw anymore, but Nate wanted my sketchbook, paint brushes and paint, charcoal, and pastels. Majority of the things I gave him I never ever opened but when I gave them to him, that same day he did like three drawings and they were pretty good. My brothers have always been a big part of my life. My parents always used to tell me that my brothers are watching my actions and are learning from me, but really it's them who are teaching me.