One of my favorite things about Alex is how he texts. Just the fact that he has learned how to text my parents or myself is incredible, and we’re all grateful for the opportunities it gives him — and us — to have a little more independence. However, what I love even more than that with Alex is how much his personality shows in those little green and blue bubbles. For starters, each text has perfect punctuation and grammar; they’re absolutely perfect, just how Alex likes things to be. No added exclamation points or abbreviations here. He also has excellent taste in emojis, and he knows it. In fact, if you text him with what he deems the ‘wrong’ emoji he will reply and ask you to resend your text with what he believes is the ‘right’ emoji. If he thinks you need it, he may even send the exact message back for you to send to him.

I think what I love most about texting with my brother, though, is that it opened up a new line of communication for us to use, especially now that I don’t live at home. I never know when I might receive a reminder that it’s Spongebob’s 20th birthday or be told how to say ‘elephant’ in Swahili (it’s tembo, by the way). Each one of these texts, no matter how random or silly they may seem, make my entire day. It tells me that Alex is thinking of me, that he wants to share something with me. And that is the best thing a sister could ask for.