i've always read and heard that growing up with older brothers isn't easy. they would mercilessly tease you, behead your dolls, scare all your admirers, and just be plain pricks.

i look back at my childhood (damn, that phrase made me feel so old!), and realize that i'd have to disagree. being the youngest and an only girl, i had a wonderful childhood, (almost) free from the torment that older brothers are known to give. i guess it was the way we were brought up by our parents.

since i'm the only one living at home with my parents now, i'd sometimes get pangs of loneliness and wish for my brothers. although we try to see each other as much as we can, we're each also busy with our own lives and those days together may not come as easily as we'd like.

i've always had a great relationship with both of my brothers. the eldest, jones, is 4 years older than i am and is a doctor. he's always been the quiet type, and fits the description of "older brother" like a glove. he takes life very seriously, and he has an air of authority that made me a little bit afraid of him as a kid. but he has his bouts of insanity as well, which is quite common in my family and which you've probably already noticed about me. he loves watching feel-good movies, and we tease him a lot about it. and underneath that serious exterior, i believe a kid is lurking. once, we saw him playing some airplane game on the computer, and while playing, he was making airplane sounds and gunshot sounds. bwarharhar!

my other brother, joel, is 2 years older than i am and is also a training manager. if i were to play favorites, then kuya joel would have to take home the prize. he was MY big brother. when we were kids, it was kuya joel who decided to become my self-proclaimed bodyguard. at my slightest cry, he'd come running, prepared to fight off whatever evil was causing me harm. when kuya joel decided to get married, i must've cried rivers. we've always been close and i guess i was jealous that he was going to go off and live somewhere else, away from me. but the distance has only made us closer. and now he has a baby girl, and he's such a wonderful father! kuya joel is also the clown in our family. if you think i'm retarded, HA! i'm nothing compared to my brother.

we've also had our share of arguments and disagreements, but nothing that lasted more than a few hours. all it took was a joke or a prank, and everything was well and good again. of course, i was never able to fully escape the horrors of having big brothers. though they never mercilessly teased me, we'd all joke around about who was adopted among the three of us. though they never beheaded my dolls, i do remember kuya joel giving my favorite new teddy bear as a gift to this girl he was courting. pathetic, wasn't it? mwarharhar! though they never really "scared" my admirers, they would laugh about my suitors and call them names. i distinctly remember one they called weng-weng (he was, umm...vertically challenged) and another that they called bakulaw (in english...ape-like hominids). hmp!

one thing that is prominent in our family is our sense of humor, dysfunctional though it may be. we all enjoy a good laugh, and family dinners are always filled with jokes and stories that have us practically rolling on the floor laughing. *sigh* i certainly wish we had more family dinners...a time when both of my brothers would be home again, "tormenting" me. now, a simple phone call is much cherished, as it serves to bring me closer to my brothers even for just a few minutes.

i miss my kuyas.