Now I know I have mentioned my brother several times on this publication – e.g.: he’s the perfect child and now he’s attending the same college as me – but we have made new developments in our sibling relationship. Not only do we both grace the same college campus, but now we also are in the same class: the same small, 15-person, discussion-based “Law in American Literature and Film” English seminar. Ironically for this English concentrator (me), my brother Sam, the Applied Math/Biology concentrator, was the one who actually discovered the class.
On the first day of class, Sam and I felt it necessary to establish our Greenberg presence. So, we planted ourselves together on the right side back corner of the discussion table. However, when we had to go around the room for introductions, our 13 other classmates didn’t put together that we both had the same last name and were from the same suburb of Washington, DC. Our teacher didn’t even pick up the clues. We couldn’t have been any more obvious; I mean, we look alike.
The instant our teacher made this connection, he decided to rightfully dub us as The Greenberg Alliance.
But as The Greenberg Alliance, we are now extremely vulnerable to all types of interrogation (though mainly from our teacher).
Question 1: Is it weird being in the same class?
To be honest, it really isn’t. It’s just like having a friend in class. We have such different interests, so it’s nice that we found a common class we both enjoy – even though it’s in my field of study. Outside of class, we both discuss the readings we didn’t do and debate whether we should have done them. We both worry together about not having started the paper due that week. And then we edit each other’s papers when we get around to actually writing them. Also, it forces Sam to see me for fifty minutes, three times a week (Sam, I’m begging you, please text me more).
Question 2: Do you two get competitive?
The one time we did get a tad competitive was when we got our first papers back. Our teacher made an announcement saying that the squiggly lines marked in pen under sentences on our papers was a good thing. So naturally, Sam and I whipped out our papers to compare who got more squiggly lines. We lowered our heads and quietly put our papers back into our backpacks, defeated, when our teacher called us out for our childish behavior.
Question 3: Do you party together (yes, our teacher is a grad student, and he asked it too)?
Yes, we occasionally party together.
I feel like our professor asks us all these questions because he’s so amazed Sam and I get along so well. I mean, we annoy each other occasionally in class – I had to elbow Sam in the side once so he’d stop biting his nails (you’re welcome, Mom and Dad). But when will I get the opportunity to see my brother in an academic setting ever again? When will I ever be able to pressure Sam to lead discussion for the next class? Or breathe down his neck when the teacher calls him out to analyze a quote from Beloved? Or give him a high-five when we both get the same grade on our essays? Taking a class together also reminds me that he is just so f*cking smart. He whispers the right answers to questions the teacher poses – he knew what Lex Talionis was from Hammurabi’s Code – but refuses to prove he knows every answer out loud. I guess that’s how he stays so humble.
There is no way I’m ever taking an applied math or biology class, so I’m banking on Sam hopefully taking another English class. Long live the humanities! Long live The Greenberg Alliance!
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