Hooray Brother

Dear Mr. Jumper:
We are very pleased to offer you admission to our PhD Program in Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the fall 2009 semester. We are offering you financial support in the form of a nine-month teaching assistantship for the 2009-10 academic year followed by a two-month summer assistantship in either teaching or research. Included in this offer are a full tuition waiver, a partial fee waiver, and a stipend of [$$$] for the 11 months. Our department not only excels in graduate research but also in physics education and we provide a very stimulating environment for learning the methods of physics instruction.

My brother just got accepted into grad school. That's awesome. Way to go bro!

I believe I've mentioned it before, but it's very strange to see my brother going through what I've dubbed adult things. You see, I often still think of him as my little brother. He said, "But Ben, I am your little brother." To which I replied, "No, I mean my little brother." He's not old enough to graduate college and go to grad school! He's not old enough to get married! He's like...an adult now. What happened? How did I miss that transition? He went from "boy who almost didn't graduate high school" (sorry if I wasn't supposed to say that) to "mad-scientist/physicist/Etch-A-Sketch artist getting married and getting paid to go to grad school". What in the hoo-ha? Again, way to go bro. Way to go.