Brother Vs. Brother

In the, "City of Brotherly Love" on Saturday, January 15th, I watched my younger brothers play against each other. Wes, a senior guard at Dartmouth College, and Clark, a sophomore guard at the University of Pennsylvania, went toe to toe in a basketball game that was close until the very end.

Fortunately, I was able to catch a flight to Philadelphia, PA for the ball game. But to be completely honest, I'd be lying if I didn't admit I had some serious nerves going in. Thinking about it, I wanted more than anything for both teams to play well, but it was truly a challenge to monitor how to appropriately root for either team. Should I just not cheer at all? Should I only cheer when either of them does anything? Or should I just scream my lungs out the entire game? How could you possibly evenly root for both teams? The answer: don't worry about it.

In the end, I mostly just felt overwhelmingly proud. To have watched both of my brothers grow and mature into such amazing student-athletes at these prestigious institutions was plenty worth cheering about, regardless of the eventual outcome of the game. And to be able to witness them compete against one another? Well, that was just the icing on the cake. Because I know exactly how hard each of them worked to get there—for that game, that day. I know just exactly what they've sacrificed.

On the floor after, I was able to watch Wes and Clark laugh and hug it out, each with priceless smiles painted across their faces. The scene of a lifetime, that made all the stress worth it. I love my boys.

Best,

JD

P.S. It was also freezing there! I flew right back to Southern California the following day.