My younger brother and I both went to a tech high school, whereas our older sister and brother both went to your traditional public high school. My younger brother was only two grades behind me in school and before we knew it high school was over and we were both in thrusted into the real world. Him and I were both grinding out forty to fifty hours a week consisting of mechanical and electrical work, ranging from attics in residential houses to the rooftops off some of Boston’s high rises. We were doing it all.

Not together obviously, if we worked together we end up killing each other. We damn near do it anyways when we go to our moms for dinner, we would never be able to work together. Although we definitely benefited from having each other a phone call away. He’d call me just as much as I call him with questions about trouble shooting or an old friend we happen to run into on the a job site. If one of us couldn’t figure it out, more often than not the the other one could.

I think it worked most to our advantage with our bosses. Him and I were around the same pay wage since we were both apprentice at the time. The only advantage I had on him were those two years experience in the field, and boy oh boy did he hate it. He’d always come home gloating, bragging about his new dollar raise he just got from work riding some sort of high horse. I’d always go into work the very next day asking for a raise. I couldn’t let my little brother make more than me. It’d always catch my boss off guard but when I would tell him just that, he’d was more than wiling to give me a three dollar raise to stay ahead of him.

I’d be the one riding the high horse for a couple months until my brother’s ego ate away at him long enough and he decides to ask for yet another raise. I don’t know if he was greedy or that competitive but he felt compelled to make more than me. Just like he did before he again came home one day gloating about another dollar raise, using the same argument I told him I used, “Oh but my brothers making more than me I have make more than him, he’s my older brother.” It was pathetic he used my essentially the same line. So just like last time I went into my boss’s office the next day again asking for another raise. I had to explain to him I was’t being greedy in anyway, I simply reiterated to him what I said last time saying my brother got another raise and now he’s making more than I am. Okay maybe that was a little greedy of me, I still had a couple dollars on him, but he could afford it. It wasn’t hurting anyone but my brother. He gave me another dollar raise and again I rode my high horse home.

This went on for a year or so it pissed my brother off that I’d always make more than him. Those two years experience made all the difference until I eventually got my electrical license and blew him out the water with almost a fifteen dollar raise. I mean up until then it was perfect for us, both our bosses had brothers and they completely understood our competitiveness. They had no idea we were hustling them every couple months for another dollar saying our brother was again making more than us.

It wasn’t even like we needed it either we were still living at home and paying dirt cheap rent for our slumlord dad, we just saved most of it. Well he saved it, I spent most of mine on drugs and tattoos. I’m just happy he’s been frugal enough so that when he gets a house I’ll at least have a place to live.