Good Deed #3 Letter to My Little Brother

Like conversation, writing a letter is a lost art. With email and text messaging, who really takes the time to write an old friend? Are our lifestyles getting that much more busy that we require a blackberry, ATMs at every corner and instant coffee? Or, are we just getting lazier, better at procrastinating and worse at maintaining the basic social skills? I think that if we look internally, we will see that it's more of the latter. With the advent of technology, cell phones, zip drives and blue tooth everything, computers aren't enabling us to manage our fast pace lifestyles easier, they're just giving ourselves excuses to seem more busy. Afterall, is the world really working that much harder? Probably not.

Almost two years ago to the day I met Noah and his Mother for the first time at a Starbucks. At first I was a little cautious since I wasn't really sure what to say. After a little while I couldn't help but notice the permanent smile that was sparkling from ear to ear on Noah's face. At that moment I knew that we were going to have one heck of a journey together.

Being a Big Brother mentor was one of the best experiences that I could have had in Hawaii. Noah became one of my best friends on the island. I never had to worry about him judging or criticizing me. He wouldn't sugar coat things or be afraid to speak his mind. I often thought that if only adults could communicate the way that he did, that we'd have a lot less arguments over petty and insignificant topics and more discussion on real topics that affect people. He was the best little brother I could have asked for and ever since I've been in North Carolina, I've missed him terribly.

Today, I decided to call him after nearly 5 months from the last breakfast I had with him in Hawaii before I left. It was so great just to hear his voice and to know that he was doing alright. I followed it up with a letter which I wanted to initiate as a way of correspondence. I don't know when the last time I wrote one myself or when I even received one for that matter. What I do know is that taking the time to write to him was time well spent and made me feel closer to him just by writing and thinking about him. After all of the many outings that we shared together where he was so great at communicating with me, I hope that my letter is clear to him that no matter how far a part we are, that I'll always be his Big Brother.