Character Sketch: Josh

While it's a widely accepted albeit unacknowledged fact that Matt is the best this generation of my family has to offer, I have to give ultramegakudos to Josh, the biggest little brother. For one thing, my youngest brother has--and I've said this before--successfully bridged the jock-nerd gap. I'm (only occasionally) a flink, athletic nerd; Matt is a smart jock/prep, but Josh is a new creature altogether.

Like [Dan's German friend] Flo, a related goth-nerd species, Josh's jock-nerd lifestyle seems effortless.

Of course, I think that Matt and I can take credit for much of Josh's personality. That's right, take away his individuality: it's all a function of how we treated him, what he saw in us, and how he reacted. In short, it sucks to be the youngest, because you're not an individual and can do nothing original.

I was just talking to Josh online, actually, and his all-too-familiar dislike of The Majestic, along with his ever-improving taste in music (Josh, unlike Matt and I, didn't spend most of his formative years listening to country), warms my heart. He listens to Matt's music and reads my books; someday, his taste will move beyond ours. That's how I'll know that I'm old.

He's trying to expand his musical taste, you see. Everytime I get back from college, I put more music on the home computer. And he listens to it, and occasionally likes it. While he didn't warm to Modest Mouse or (the) Eels (new album on the way!), he has moved (slowly) away from Dashboard Confessional and Something Corporate, towards bands like Saves the Day and Soul Coughing.

There's nothing like watching someone else as they realize that things suck. Soon enough, he might start getting annoyed with my dad. Then the circle will, as Josh might say, be complete.