Like most sibling relationships, my oldest brother and I compete in typical name-calling and the occasional wrestle. But he went too far, during my eighth grade year, when he informed journalism adviser Greg Stobbe, I would join his staff the upcoming year.

I never liked writing, mainly because I was horrible at it, so the mere thought of spending 50 minutes each day writing seemed like torture. After asking Alec (’05) what I did to deserve this, he assured me he would edit my articles; I could pad college resumes, get on Stobbe’s good side and could go to New York for a week.

After two years of struggling through articles, little motivation and fear of Stobbe, I began my third year in journalism. With practically our entire staff graduated, it seemed he had no other choice than give me the title of Editor-in-chief. I still remember his words; “I didn’t need to give you this position so I can take it away.”

Being that my entire life seems driven out of fear of failing others’ expectations, I spent two years trying to disprove his disclaimer. During the first week I thought I had failed him: I misspelled two words in the front-page headline, made seemingly countless grammatical errors and took whole class periods to edit a single article.

What I did not realize four years ago is that my brother’s alleged act of cruelty would be my favorite class and mold me into the person I wanted to be. I have always been a ‘good’ student, never the best. I have won two league titles in tennis, but never reached the state championships.

It took a lot of work: numerous journalism periods, vacation time, eighth periods, weekends, managing 40 students, coordinating articles with photos, writing my own articles, editing hundreds of articles, thinking of titles and captions, coordinating deadlines and other tasks. Yet, I reached the potential I knew I had but always seemed to come up short.

I never pictured myself as Editor-in-chief of a nationally acclaimed paper and I learned no one truly knows their own capabilities.

I had my brother and Stobbe to stretch my limits. However, now heading off to college, my fears do not lie in failed expectations, but missed opportunities. Sometimes the things you “know” you hate, turn into your greatest accomplishments.