I owe a lot to my older sister, Ashley.

She was the original inspiration for the Temple of Andrex, which eventually led to my interest in web development and my current position. This blog, too, in fact was based on her own blog originally.

She got my into anime and manga, which comprise a significant part of my tastes in media. She can’t get credit for getting me into video games, but without her GameBoy, I would have definitely missed out on some of my favorites. And her fervor for Ocarina of Time definitely roped me back into the Zelda series with Wind Waker, after I had been at risk of falling away after Link to the Past.

The point is, I owe a lot of my self to her, and I feel bad about her current situation. She’s had a hard year, I mean the rest of my family has too with my dad losing his job and all of us moving out leaving my mom feeling more alone, and I can’t possibly know how high school is for a girl (personally for me, it was awesome, but my younger sister is always involved in some world-ending event.) But Ashley crushes my heart. She is of course responsible for her decisions, we all are. But I think she deserves better.

It was like, all my life I had been on this dark path, and I couldn’t see anything. And the path was laden with rocks, and pitfalls, and trees. But a little bit ahead was Ashley, and I could see her. I could see her trip, and fall, and walk into the trees. I memorized the pattern, and was able to avoid most of the traps and snares she was prey to.

I guess it doesn’t feel fair that I have this extra wisdom and foreknowledge when she didn’t.

I don’t know what started this whole diatribe, but I felt it was necessary. I also don’t think I’m done with this topic, this June is this blog’s seventh birthday and that’s a very important date. For a quick recap, I promised I’d keep this blog going for seven years, wondering what it would have been like if Ashley had kept hers going that long. This June I step out of that shadow, but then I’ll no longer have a guide on the road ahead.

Can I walk using just my own two feet?
-Andrew