My brother was a drug addict for a little while.

I know putting it that way makes it sound like just some phase he went through -- like that time I got bangs -- but I feel both experiences can be peripherally compared. Each was devastating.

Before him, addiction was something I experienced from a viewer's perspective while watching movies, and I look back now and cannot believe that I watched those movies on a loop. In junior high, my friend and I would stop at the video store (RIP Larkfield Video) on the way home from school. We'd rent either St. Elmo's Fire (RIP Rob Lowe's mullet!) or Sid and Nancy. What was an eleven year old doing watching Sid and Nancy? Well, my mother worked. You can get away with a lot when you have the house to yourself. That my rebellion only involved watching scandalous movies and episodes of Divorce Court is actually pretty impressive.