Lessons From My Internet Friend

I’m 19 years old and the oldest sibling in my immediate family. I have one younger brother. He is 16 years old. Sometimes, I feel like he looks up to me for advice and also sometimes to be a role model of sorts. Sometimes I feel like something of a second mother to him. But sometimes, my brother needs to realize that even the oldest sibling needs some advice of their own. Occasionally, I might try asking my parents for advice on what to do in certain situations, but far more often than not, I simply can’t do that due to circumstances that I just don’t believe are worth talking about in a public setting. That’s where Tony comes in.

Tony is one of my many internet friends. He (yes, he) is 27 years old and lives in Texas. He is something of a jack of all trades. He is a photographer, he writes articles for a popular Texan magazine, he designs his own cars, he can skateboard and snowboard, and a can do a whole lot of other stuff. Over the course of, at this point, almost two years, I have learned a lot from Tony. I’ve received so much advice from him, and he’s become something of the big brother in my life that mother never gave me.

Sometimes, when I asked Tony a question, he gave me an answer that I really didn’t want to hear. This is because Tony and I have different views, especially in terms of politics. When I was in Austin with him, he once brought up the fact that he didn’t really like the city of Austin too much because he thought it was becoming too leftist. This is why I try not to talk about politics with him, although, that said, whenever he DOES talk about politics, I can understand what he’s saying and it makes perfect sense. Some of the answers to some of the questions I asked him yielded the fact that we had, and still continue to have, differing beliefs, which has taught me to truly take EVERYTHING into account when forming my opinions about issues and subsequently taking action.

Despite of all of the things Tony does, he gets a decent amount of sleep. A few weeks ago, I just had so much to do that I didn’t think that I would get all that much sleep. I asked Tony how he survived on nights when he didn’t get much sleep. He said that there was no method, that he gave it 100% even when he was at his worst. That got me thinking about how much less work I do as a college student than he probably does as all of the things I mentioned before. I asked him how I become as strong as he is. He said to “just try hard at everything you do, and strive to be the best and always give 100%.” At that point, it hit me: that’s exactly what I had to do.

As I said before, Tony is a bit of a jack of all trades, so he needs energy to do all of those things. This means that he drinks a lot of energy drinks as well as coffee. In fact, he got me into drinking coffee by way of Starbucks DoubleShot Energy Drinks. Speaking of Starbucks, Tony has posted many pictures on his Instagram stories of himself at Starbucks doing work for his magazine. That said, as a college student interested in science as well as writing, you can imagine that I get pounded with a lot of work from my professors as well as my job. All of this means that Starbucks has become a place where I can loiter, think, and get all of my work done. They have electrical outlets for when I need to charge my laptop, there’s free Wi-Fi, and there’s plenty of food and beverages to go around out – including coffee! Nowadays I’ll spend my Saturdays sitting at a Starbucks either doing some kind of homework or writing articles.

Looking back on it now, I wish I had Tony in my life sooner. He has gotten me through so much in my short life, and I wish he could’ve gotten me through more. He is so much of an older sibling figure to me that when we met in person for the very first time in Austin this past summer, I gave him a gigantic hug, and I hugged him so hard that I kind of got some of my makeup on his shoulder. He has taught me so much. I just wish I could return the favor by teaching him something…