“I’d just started grad school in Tennessee. I was a...

“I’d just started grad school in Tennessee.  I was a little lonely, so I might have been looking for some familial bonds.  But I actually got the idea from an episode of West Wing. One of the main characters was a Big Brother.  So I did a quick Google search, and found that the East Tennessee chapter was one of the strongest in the country.  What really prompted me to join was learning that the little brother list is much longer than the little sister list.  The organization gave me a personality test, and I got matched with Brandon.  He was extremely shy.  I had no idea what to do.  In the beginning there was a lot of silence.  And whenever he did talk, I’d just say: ‘I get that, I get that.’  After a few days of that, he told me: ‘Thanks for trying to get me.’  Soon Brandon became my best friend in Knoxville.  And I think I shared that title for a little while, until he got older and met more friends.  Food was a big part of our friendship.  We always went to Shoney’s.  I still have a picture of the first time we went.  He filled half his plate with red jello, and the other half with chicken nuggets.  I focused a lot on his academics.  I’m a big school nerd, so that was my comfort zone.  We did a lot of homework together.  I wasn’t aiming for him to get A’s.  I was just aiming for a feeling of progress.  His improvement at school was huge.  He even got ‘The Turnaround Award’ in 8th Grade.  That was such a big moment for both of us.  We’ve come a long way since then.  Now we’re looking for the right college.”