It was 6:30 on a Sunday morning when I heard the familiar, “Hi, Ce-Ce!” coming from my 19-month-old brother, Luke. I opened my eyes to see his smiling face about 3 inches away from mine. I just had to laugh and say, “Good morning.”

“Morning, sis!” came the reply, followed by a big hug.

He crawled into bed with me and covered himself with blankets. I hid my face for a second, and when I peeked out, Luke was hiding his face too.

Later that morning, my mom made a cheesy omelet for him and a cheesy onion, mushroom and bacon omelet for me. Luke ate a few bites of his but decided that mine looked tastier. Instead of eating his omelet, he ate practically all of mine, and he drank the rest of my orange juice too. I had an apple for breakfast.

Once my apple was gone, I went to the living room and lay on the floor. Luke came toddling in and lay down next to me. We played for a little while before Mom went to the store. We played with all of his toys for the rest of the morning.

Sometime in early afternoon, I began to dance around the kitchen to put the dishes away. Luke did his best to imitate me, dancing around as he handed me each utensil, plate and container one after another.

We had just finished up in the kitchen when Mom came back from the store. After the groceries were put away, I went off to my bedroom to finish my homework. It had not occurred to me that Luke would be upset with my absence since we had spent most of the day together. But to my utter surprise, he was heartbroken. He began to knock on my closed bedroom door and cry, yelling my name multiple times while he continued banging away. I felt terrible for leaving him out there in the hallway, so I opened the door and picked him up.

He sat on my lap while I completed my math homework. While I was working, he pointed to the equations within the book and asked, “What’s that?” every couple of seconds. I tried to explain my homework to him in a way that he might understand, but all he would say is, “Oh,” along with a massive amount of baby talk.

As I wrote down formulas and answers, Luke wanted to write too. He scribbled on a separate piece of paper until I finished my work.

If I went down a particular slide at the park, he would go down that slide too. If I blew him a kiss and smiled, he would blow me a kiss and smile back. No matter what I did, he would try to copy it. He was always excited to see me in the morning, and every day after school, he greeted me with a warm hug and a little kiss on the cheek.

For a while, I wondered why he would try to mimic me. What was so special about me? It was then, however, that I realized the bigger deal in this situation: My little brother was looking up to me, and I needed to be a good example. Luke was impressionable like all children are. I needed to be the right role model. The last thing I wanted to do was teach my little brother bad habits.

With such a young mind looking up to me, I realized that it was crucial for me to keep myself in check. I needed to make sure that I used only the words I wanted him to know and not the ones he should refrain from using. He needed to learn good habits like brushing his teeth and saying “please” and “thank you.” He needed to be respectful to our parents. And if he was going to do these things, it meant that I had to do them first.

Looking through the eyes of a child showed me how I had become lax in certain aspects of my life. I had taken things for granted at times. I had forgotten to say “thank you” to my mom or dad for all they had done for me. But having my little brother around reminded me to never let down. It helped me realize that I should constantly evaluate myself so that I can be the proper role model for him. I want him to be successful—and that is just the motivation I need to strive to be successful myself.