Falling down as a kid wasn’t an option for me because of the mind set from one determined person. Never giving up and raising me to be the man that I am today, and will still be growing up to. Not a day goes by where his name crosses through my head like blood flowing through my veins. Without him I wouldn’t be in sports like baseball, and football or even wrestling. We both went through the same challenges and have both fell down to help each other up quickly. He is Loving, Caring, and Determined can’t describe how much this person means to me because he’s an idol I still look at to this day and always will. When I’m 19 just like him, I hope that I am following what he told me to become. Because the person is my cousin Anthony, who really isn’t my cousin, but a brother in my eyes.

Loving can describe Anthony for the fact that he would never say no to anyone in the family, and was always willing to help. Even when he grew up with no father wouldn’t look to it as a negative cause he knew his brother and uncle could fill the spot. Just like Anthony when I was born my dad had walked out on my sister and I. We knew we could get through it even if we had to sacrifice many values. What is stuck in my head is all the moments we spent together in life like me waiting for him to get off the bus. He went to West Oak middle school and I was babysitted by my grandma. So the bus stop was right up the street from my grandma’s house. So I rode my little red scooter of the buss to the top, and with a giant smile on my face would wait for him. After he got home I waited for him to finish his homework, then we both decided what the plan was for the day. Once we figured out what we were going to do it was play time.  We would see who could drink the most pepsi’s on a friday night while playing playstation. When we slept over our grandma’s house, would challenge one another to a football game in the back yard. Both of us challenging friends to a two on two in basketball. He always said, “Don’t say you can’t until you try it.” Why that has so much meaning to me is because he taught me everything in life. Teaching me how to play football and the rules to it because I was a fast learner, and once he taught me how to throw the ball and catch I was great at it. He also taught me how to ride my bike and would pick me up, and protect me if I got hurt. I remember this experience like it was yesterday because he did mean his word by saying he would protect me. I got on my bike, and started riding I was a little wobbly, but I thought I had gotten the hang of it. Well going down the mini hill on the street laid a huge rock that I didn’t see, and right when I rode over it I fell. Slamming onto the asphalt and crying cause I was young at the time. Anthony saw that I had fallen and in an instant ran over, and scooped me up and started running towards the house not caring about my bike. Layed me down on a cushioned swing set in the back, and went to grab my bike. I really wanted for him to be my brother asking my mom if we could live with him. I knew it would never happen because I knew that his mom would miss him a lot. No matter what I tried sports that he liked, and he tried sports that I liked, but no matter what happened we never fought. Both growing up with no dads in our lives looking after one another like two brothers would in a life or death situation. He walked in my dad's footsteps to protect me, and take me in even though he was only a couple years older than me. I remember when we both went to a bonfire, and we decided to play a game called smeer the q***r and everyone was for themselves. I was really small at the time around the age of 7 and honestly didn’t know how to play the game at all. While chasing someone the ball fell in front of me, and I scooped it up running fast like lightning in my eyes. When Instantly a bigger boy caught me, and pushed me into a tree. My cousin instantly ran over and started to fight the kid who had pushed me. From that moment I knew that I had a big brother and honestly it felt amazing to know that I was never alone.

When Anthony hit middle school, he changed a lot, and had different likings into different ideas like skating and friends. We kind of grew just a little bit apart because of the fact that he moved to Grayslake and I lived in Mundelein. That didn’t stop us from anything at all almost having sleepovers every week, and hanging out during school days. I was willing to listen to him tell me about what he now started to like, and I took that to consideration. So I said “Why not.” And started skating ,and hanging out with his new friends knowing that I was scared to do any of that. One day I came over to his house, and he had told me that he had a gift for me up in his room. So we both bolted up the stairs, and laying in the middle of his room on the floor was my own pair of skates that he bought for me. I gave him a huge hug and tried them on outside, and we both went riding around the block showing of our skills. When I went home I showed my mom, and she was surprised I even liked skating, and had the mindset of skating. It was a saturday when my mom got a call saying that Anthony was wondering what I was doing because he wanted to know if I wanted to go to the skate park to go skating with him. I didn’t like skateboarding because it seemed too hard to do tricks and stay on the board so I decided to do skating instead. I told my mom to say yeah, and she drove me to his house instantly. I was really nervous from that fact that I had never been to a skate park and I wasn’t sure how they worked. When we had both skated to the park, I saw this huge ramp and everyone was throwing tricks, and it looked awesome. Anthony told me to go on top of the big ramp, but I was too scared to even look at it. I did a lot of thinking about it, and finally decided that I was going to go to the top and skate down it. I didn’t want to let Anthony down because he always did insane cool tricks off the ramps, and he said we wouldn’t go and eat until I went down. So to motivate me Anthony said, “No matter what happens, just know that I am proud of you.” So I went down the hill and was wobbly scared that I was going to fall, but I didn’t. When I came back up, I was getting high fives from people I didn’t know and I felt great. I could have never had the mind set to this day if Anthony hadn’t pushed me all my life no matter what the subject is. He is determined to make me the man that he is, and to follow my dreams and never give up.

After high school years we barely got to see each other, and spend time as much as we did, but what really showed me that he still cared about me was two years ago. I was playing in a baseball tournament and we were in the championship game. We played against the Lake Villa All Star baseball team and they looked like giants, and our whole team was scared and my head was hurting. The first couple of innings had gone by and there was no score. I looked over to the side and there he was standing cheering me on when I was up to bat. He said, “You got this Sabian, your the best one out there let’s go show them what you are made of.” So i took a couple of deep breaths and stepped into the box. Swung at the first pitch and hit a shot into the gap, and had scored 3 runs so now we were winning. We kept playing hard and I was on fire making plays at shortstop, and hitting the ball amazing. I made the final out and we took the win and won the tournament. That was a special day because my cousin got to put the MVP medal over my head and I felt great. He had always been there for me, and I have always been there for him, but the past year I was there for him. Anthony wanted to join the Marines and he had been training all year around studying and missing family events. I was looking on facebook when i saw that he posed that he missed the test by one point so I sent him a message. I said, “Just like you tell me everytime I come to you with a problem or a situation and just want to give up you always tell me to push through it. That no matter what happened that I still love you and I know you can pass that test Anthony. You're a strong determined boy and will do anything for anyone. Don’t give up. Keep pushing forward no matter how hard you fall. I love you.” He read the message, and sent one back saying how much he loved me and how i'm a little brother to him. When he goes out with his friends I still get invited, and we still play football and baseball together. He was Dad that was their for me all through my childhood, and always said, “I know you don’t have a Dad in your life. Don’t let that stop you from following your dreams and becoming what you want. Because you are talented and you will make it far if your mind is set to it.’

No words can show how much love I have for my cousin from everything we have been through together. From him not passing his test to get into the Marines by one point to me not having a dad to say i'm proud of you. He would defend me from everything, and as kids show that everything was safe and that no one could hurt me. He was Loving looking after me everyday, and showing me that he could be there for me no matter what. When I see that my little cousin needs my help, or wants me to sleep over. I'm there in a heartbeat because I love them. He showed me you have to care about everyone, and you have to show everyone that you can be greater than your enemies. I say enemies from people always saying that you're not big enough, you're too small to play, and you're not smart enough. I didn’t let that stop me at all and it happened even last year. My dad came back into my life but I still think Anthony is my dad. He told me that I shouldn’t play football because I was too small, but I told him no that I was going to play. The first game against Wheeling high school I opened his eyes to show him that I love football. An that I wasn’t to small or not strong enough, and I could have never been so good if it wasn’t for Anthony. That when you see something you want you have to go and grab it to be determined to exceed to it. When I saw him fail the test, he didn’t give up when he wanted to and leave the idea of joining it, instead he set some time away from it and studied again. He listened to words that he told me, and got back up to go accomplish that goal. I love my cousin with all my heart, and would do anything for him. Because Anthony wasn’t just a brother or a cousin or even a friend, he was the father figure in my life.