I spent the last week planning and stressing over my brother’s wedding. The long nights beforehand were filled with me staring at a blank document trying to find the right words to say in a speech in front of hundreds of our friends and families. I struggled, but I think I found the right way to articulate our relationship.

You see, my brother and I are 7 years apart. At one time there were only a couple of people close to me in age. I guess that’s why I stuck with them. It sucked that there really was a massive age gap between us, and to this day I get constantly asked whether or not I regret not having a closer relationship with him growing up.
My answer was yes, until very recently when I realised how important it was to both of us, for everything to turn out the way it did. Mostly because we are both very different.

From our favourite colours to our personalities, we couldn’t be any more of the worse pair of brothers on the planet. Besides general things like sports, movies and comic books, we don’t have that much in common at all. In fact, we ’re pretty much polar opposites.

For example,
His favourite colour is blue. Mine is red.

He loves the NFL…I love the UFC.

And even though we grew up in PENRITH in Western Sydney and have NO affinity with Newcastle in any way… he supports THE NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS.

I, however, remained loyal to the Panthers.

And of course the obvious, I am an incredibly handsome, former model for West-point Blacktown, and he is …well…he is what he is.

Despite that, the most painful difference is that while we were celebrating his marriage to a beautiful and kind woman…I was still depressingly single and alone.

Its weird, because the list for our similarities are heavily outweighed by our differences, and somehow we lived with each other for just over 20 years. I remember times where we would walk past each other and not say a word, and other days where we would engage in fist fights over the tv remote that was so vicious that our small St Clair house would shake.
Our lives and personalities were so complex…but despite all of that we had one thing in common. Our love for family and our love for each other.

But there is a reason why I am the way I am today. The first is because I learnt from his every mistake…and the second is because he made sure I survived life before it got any easier or harder.
He paved the way. And more often than not I chose a different path…but in the end, it brought us to where we are. Me MCing at his beautiful reception, surrounded by loving friends, family…and more importantly an even more beautiful bride.

I never expected for him to get married. It never entered my mind. Maybe its because I’ve shared a bathroom with the guy and I just didn’t picture anyone else, who wasn’t related to us, to deal with someone like that.

He’s big, he’s clunky and he’s hairy. He’s pretty much a bear. And that’s a lot coming from me. While the rest of us love going out and drinking and partying, He would rather sit at home and play board games, watch the game or glue his eyes to a screen of some sort with one of his favourite tv shows or the latest DC or Marvel movie.

So when I heard that he had met his now wife, I was shocked….who was this Wonder Woman who had taken interest in this beast I called my brother.
Was she blind?
Or maybe she was deaf?
Or more likely both?

I wasn’t sure at all. But when I met her for the first time, all my assumptions went out the window.

She was and is kind, compassionate, lovely and bright. She always has a smile on her face and loves talking and having a good time. She was sweet and pretty…and most of all…she balanced out my brother.

Us Alexanders are emotional beings….we sometimes forget to think with our brains and instead act on our hearts. And it was nice to see someone who understood and appreciated that.

She is perfect for him, and now I think he is perfect for her. Because he’s actually changed… a lot.

I know he’ll be a great husband, and hopefully one day, a great father.
I know because he was a great brother.

And even though we don’t get on as well as we should, despite our loving and understanding parents, we will always love our family more than anything in the world.

Life wasn’t easy for both of us.  Our differences are what made us who we are today, which is what he and I needed. But her kindness and compassion is what we all needed. I myself am very excited to now have a sister and even more relieved that he finally found someone….seriously, we were all worried for a second there.

SO this is for my older brother, his new bride ….and also, my new sister.

I hope your day was as amazing as it was for all of us.
I hope I did you both proud.
And I hope that there is nothing but love and happiness in your future.