My Memory of my 15th Year

Ok, so Clementine already told you that when I was 15, he tried to kill me and himself. That is true, but when I look back at that time in my life I rarely see that image. There is two more prominent images that stand out in my mind. Both involve Clementine and both were the beginning of a new era.
I defeated self doubt and accomplished something I never though I could because of Clementine. I ran a mile. I know this is probably not the most impressive thing to most, but to me it was nothing short of a miracle. My mom had asked us to go to the store to and get some bread. All the children went even my other brother. Well, when we were getting ready Clemenitine told us that we were going to jog to the front of Winslow. I was excited and terrified all at the same time. We stretched and then Clementine start jogging with me and my brother right beside him. My other brother dropped out pretty quickly, I don't believe it was because he couldn't do it like he said I believe he got embarrassed about jogging in the neighborhood. I think Clementine knew that too, so he didn't give him a hard time he just said that we would meet him at the end. So now it was just me and Clementine. When I began to show signs that I might give up Clementine would quickly give me words of encouragement. He kept saying "You can do this. I know you can do this." He believed in me and I thought to myself if he could believe in me maybe I should believe in myself. So I started singing "wonder" by Natatlie Merchant. I sang it all the way to the end of the neighborhood with Clementine. He would only stop singing to give me words of encouragement or to tell me a car was coming. Towards the end I was so tired and had slowed down quite a bit, but Clementine (who could obviously run a lot faster) remained right beside me. That day that I ran a mile I learned a lot about myself and a lot about Clementine. I learned that if I don't give up and if I at least make it to the end then I might just amaze myself. I also learned that Clementine was going to stay beside me and help me believe in myself no matter what.
The second defining moment was my military ball. I had never gotten dressed up before and my Mom had taken me to the mall and helped me pick out this beautiful blue dress at JC Pennys. When she did my hair and I got dressed I felt like a fish out of water. I wasn't sure that I looked nice, but then Clementine saw me. He told me I looked beautiful and said I looked like a movie star. Mom took a picture of us together on the back porch. He was still in his work uniform, but none the less I was all too happy to take a picture with him. I have always thought of my brother as one of the "pretty people" and by doing what he did that day I let my self consciousness go and had a blast at the ball.
I have a lot to thank Clementine for, but these are two of the many memories that I want to share with the world. I think that by writing them and placing them here I have somehow frozen them in time. And if I bore you by using this blog to sometimes pay respect to my brother well, I am sorry. But I think now more then ever before it is important for me to make clear just how much he has done for me and just how much I really love him.