On the Edge of the Third Floor. | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: On the Edge of the Third Floor. | Previous Challenge Entry
By Marco Perez
05/03/08
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There I was, standing on the edge of a three story building, being dared to walk as closely on the edge by two older brothers. At eight years old, were I to succeed, I would earn their respect, until the next challenge. Were I to fail, they would have to hope and pray for another brother to bring these challenges to. Whatever I did, there was no possibility of backing out.

Being the youngest of three brothers brought its own challenges to my life. I can’t say my brothers were evil… evil is too weak of a word to describe. It seemed at the time that the sole purpose of my brother’s lives was to torment me. The many stories I could tell. For instance, I still have a clear recollection of the front door neighbor pointing and laughing at my naked body, as my brothers held me against the window while I was changing. I have the memory of the slap across the face, as my brothers told me to go say some new word they had learned at school to my mom. And how could I forget the day I decided to punch one of them in the face; only to have him slam my head against the concrete floor multiple times.

We were just boys, doing boy things. It wasn’t really their fault. No. No. I blame my parents. They should have skipped having the first two, and gone straight to having me. But instead, they had this urge to produce three young boys, and keep me as the youngest.

I often wonder what scars were left from those years of torment. There have to be some elements of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Perhaps I have blocked them out, but I don’t think they have at all. It comes up in conversation at times, when they randomly apologize for the many things they did when I was young. “Do you mean tossing me across the room? Or do you mean agreeing with each other to blame me for the broken vase? Not only did I get in trouble for the vase. I also got in trouble for my relentless ‘lying’ by denying that I had broken it, when two ‘witnesses’ saw me do it.”

Siblings. Why does God do this to us? It’s my understanding that the Chinese are not allowed to have more than one child. Could whoever came up with the rule have had two evil brothers like mine, and considered it a duty to rid the World from this kind of anguish?

The truth of the matter is that despite all the difficulties and challenges of growing up the youngest of three, I know that there are many things that I owe to having been in that position. I am known (whether good or bad) for my sarcastic sense of humor. At least I consider it a sense of humor. When I was getting beat up, due to the fact that my brothers were bigger and stronger, I only had one line of defense. My tongue. Of course, over the years, I’ve had to learn to control my tongue, and not use my sarcasm to hurt people, but more to alleviate the tension of a situation. Also my academic achievements. I could never beat my brothers in sports. I could never wrestle them to the ground. But every year I could beat them in school (this is a kind way of telling myself that I was a greater nerd than they were). Every year I would hear something along the lines of “Just wait till you get to sixth grade. Things are a lot tougher then.” I would take that as a challenge, and show them that I could do better than they did in the sixth grade. I also have an uncanny ability to be annoying. I can’t really claim that this has helped me get a job, or move up in life, but it is an interesting gift to have.

I hated my brothers at different points on different days. I don’t think they blame me for this. Yet interestingly, today, it’s all, or mostly all, water under the bridge. I enjoy their company, I enjoy their friendship. Perhaps it’s because on that momentous afternoon, standing up to the challenge of walking across the edge of a three story building, I did it. I crossed. I wasn’t going to back down. Maybe I know that many of the challenges that I have undertaken in life, I owe to two taunting siblings who were saying I didn’t have the guts to go through with it.

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