First, a brief explanation: As I have mentioned before, I have 5 brothers. 3 reside outside of Vancouver B.C., one is stationed in Tennessee in the US Army and the last, Matthew, the youngest...well, hes Matthew. He's actually my stepbrother and when I was 16 and he 14, my mother divorced his father. It was very upsetting to Matthew and rightfully so; after the divorce, his biological mother just smothered him way too much and his father LITERALLY forgot about him. I feel like my mother, who is technically Matthew's former stepmother (keeping up with all this yet? haha) and I raised him after that. He got in trouble and lots of it and got arrested a few times and his grades effing sucked. We didn't know if he was going to graduate high school; I took on the role of tutoring and mentoring him like no other. In fact, I'm the one who phoned his 12th grade English teacher to see if there was extra credit he could do to graduate. There was, he did it and we found out a mere 48 HOURS before graduation that he was going to get to graduate. I was very proud of him.
So, he's 20 now and still in need of serious discipline. You have to understand, I was SO afraid of getting another "Matthew's in jail" or "We found Matthew in a hospital for doing yet another stupid thing". He and I are way close and I think that's because hes just 2 years younger than me. At all his jobs, he listed me as his emergency contact. Not his mother. Not his father. Me.
3 months ago, he did something I am so happy he did: he enlisted in the US Marine Corps. I just got home from his bootcamp graduation and I can seriously say I am SO FUCKING PROUD ITS INSANE!!!! Damn, I don't know what his instructors did to him, but hes a changed man. They did in 12 weeks what I couldn't do in 10 years. Still my younger brother, the brat, but so...respectful. I love it!!! I don't have to yell at him anymore!!! Check it out:
Seeing his girlfriend for the first time in 3 months. So cute:
Him and his girlfriend:
I sprained my ankle at the Marine Base yesterday so I won't be going ANYWHERE. Effing lame I say, LAME!!! Someone come and ice it for me and be my human crutch? 
I'm trying to keep moving a moment at a time, to stay within allowable reality. I will not mentally give into insanity and chaos. Thanks for asking.
Hope life is well on your end. ♥