‘The Land of Stories’ and What it Taught Me About my Brother by Collette

‘The Land of Stories’ and What it Taught Me About my Brother by Collette - October 2023 Scholarship Essay

My brother and I have not always had the best relationship. When we were younger, our relationship felt easy as breathing. We easily played together and I remember being very close. As we grew older though, we began realizing we were different, and our relationship started to fray. In fourth grade, I read the ‘Land of Stories’ by Chris Colfer. I remember being jealous of the brother and sister in that book. How come they were able to get along so easily when my brother and I couldn’t? Even when they were in stressful situations and treated each other poorly, they always made up. Through my anger, reading that book put a productive idea in my head, though that wouldn’t fully come to fruition until a couple of years later.
By the time I was in middle school, we were barely talking to each other, and neither of us was putting much effort in. Our routine became saying one snarky thing to the other, them retaliating, and that being our only interaction until the scene reset the next day. I remember thinking he was being unfair to me. But looking back, we were being equally unfair to each other.
The summer going into my eighth grade year, I was having a boring Saturday, lounging in my room. I was laying down, letting my eyes trail where they wanted, and they landed on ‘The Land of Stories’, so I decided to read it for old time’s sake. I read the whole book in one sitting, my eyes bleary by the time my mom called me down for dinner. The sun was on the opposite side of the sky from when I began reading, so I felt disoriented. I had a guilty feeling in the pit of my stomach the whole time I was reading it, and all through dinner, so after I quickly went to bed. When I woke up the next morning, I made a decision, I was going to have a good relationship with my brother, and I was going to put in the work.
After trying my hardest to have a relationship with him all of my eighth grade and freshman year, I was very tired. I was back to ground zero of being annoyed with him. Why didn’t he see how hard I was trying? He couldn’t lend me a hand? He couldn’t meet me halfway? By Christmas break of my sophomore, I had my third encounter with ‘The Land of Stories’. It was a very similar situation to what happened to me three summers ago, I just happened to pull it off the shelf. This time though, I only read about five chapters before putting the book away. I felt the same feelings I had felt before, anger and jealousy. But I realized that me trying to force a relationship on my brother was not going to work. All I could do, was try to be the kindest version of myself around him, hope that he would see my good qualities, but be at peace if he didn’t.
It was hard for a long time. It took a lot of patience, and it sometimes got frustrating. But as time went on, it became easier and easier. This past weekend, we took a family road trip, and while it wasn’t perfect, my brother and I had many bonding moments and being around him has felt the easiest it’s been in years. I love my brother, and sometimes good things and healthy relationships are something you need to wait and fight for. ‘The Land of Stories’ helped me learn that.