Bigger Sibling Influence

Bigger sibling influence. Bigger siblings, whether you like us or not, you play a gigantic friggin role in our lives. Older cousins, you too. This is something I've been saying for a while now. I'm not talkin about older siblings and cousins who live far. I'm talkin about the older people you grow up with, that you see almost every day or week. Parents, you play a gigantic role too obviously. I'm not takin that away. You raise us. You take care of us.

But it's the older siblings and cousins or even friends who we grow up together with those parents taking care of us that molds us. YOU are the reason why we walk and talk the way we do right now. YOU are the reason why we like this and hate that. YOU are the reason why we wear the certain types of clothing we got on our backs. Like I said, whether you like us or not, you influence us.

My friend admitted it to me. She looks up to her older sister. She told me to keep it secret, which is why her name isn't gonna be mentioned, but that's what she said. Even though they're not the closest sisters, she looks up to her older sibling. And I see the influence. The way she dresses, their sense of humor, their music, all influenced.

My cousin's children, whatever the older brother says, the younger does. Whatever the older brother says, the younger says. The older bro took off the lid from his drink from 7-11. The younger brother took it off and dropped it on the grass. I said, "AY! Don't throw your garbage on the floor! Why'd you take off your lid? He replied, "Kuya did it!" -_- ("kuya" [KU-YAH] is a Filipino label to older siblings or cousins. For example, I don't call him this, but my brother to me would be "Kuya John")

I have younger cousins in Virginia. I do not influence them at all because I only visit them once in a while. The duo is an older sister and a younger brother. The older one fines him annoying and vice versa. To be honest, the younger brother is a handful. But watching them grow up, I've watched them fight, constantly. But no matter how much they don't get along, if you look at the younger brother, you see the bigger sibling influence. You're not gonna see it in the way he walks, talks, or dress, but the interests are there. I took a look at his music in his PSP. He has the music she has on her iPod. And I know he doesn't just have them there because the sister put them there because she doesn't want to have to search and get his music. He sings along to those songs! Even TV shows they watch. He loves the shows that she watches. He just loves those Disney shows.

My older cousin from California, friggin HUGE influence on my brother and I. Most of the music that we listen to, we got from him. NOFX, Lagwagon, No Use For a Name, Rancid, Less than Jake, and a crap load more, we got from him. Well, actually, my brother got from him, and then I got from my brother. I'll explain that later. Anyways, even skating style was influenced. My cousin talked about surfing "DK". He took my brother's Silver Surfer toy and put him in DK position, or Drop Knee. My bro hopped on his longboard, riding the conrete wave DK.

Me, bein the youngest brother of two and the youngest of the Saavedra cousins, I know where all my inluences came from. But I know for a fact, the biggest influence was, no, IS, my brother. All the music I listen (even though I said it came from our cousin), I got from my bro. The movies I like - brother. The way I dress - brother. On many occasions when me and my brother go out, we walk out of our bedrooms and look at each other. "FRIGGIN AY JAY!" he yells, because we're both wearin plaid shorts and a band t-shirt. Then he goes and changes his shirt. One time he saw I was wearing my Rancid shirt. So he went back into his room and changed out of his Operation Ivy tee. Oh yeah, today! We went to see Predators with Millie. He saw I was wearin my NOFX so he changed out of his Lagwagon (both Cali punk bands).

Anyways you get the point. Bigger brothers and sisters and older cousins, watch out for us. We don't know anything. So we follow you (or at least from my own experience).