I am the oldest of three children. My brother Ashton is the second oldest, born three years after me. While me and my younger sister are close, Ashton and I have always been a little bit closer since there is not as big of an age gap between us. We were not always close in the friend sort of way though. In fact, that did not happen until about three years ago. Before then, it was almost constant sibling bickering. We do still bicker on occasion as siblings do, but we act as good friends most of the time.

When I was away at college, Ashton and I would FaceTime to keep in touch. Now that I am back home, we spend time chatting in each others rooms. While there is lots of verbal communication going on, there is a significant amount of nonverbal communication as well. We have gotten to know each others nonverbal ways of communicating so well. For example, I know that if Ashton’s playing video games, he does not want to talk. If I don’t want to talk, my airpods are probably in my ears, which Ashton is familiar with. Sometimes I know I should fix my body language when Ashton points things out. If He is talking and I am on my phone, he calls me out just like he does when I roll my eyes. He knows when I am annoyed and asks why. The relationship I have with my brother has proven to me that nonverbal communication really can do the job to get a message across. Between me and Ashton, I think I portray more negative communication with my body language than I should be. I am glad that he helps me better myself by calling me out.