I am an official Big Brother with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah Program. I met my Little Brother on Tuesday afternoon. My Little Brother is 9 years old and is currently living with his aunt and uncle. His mother is currently in prison and he was living with his grandma until last week when The Division of Child and Family Services had to take him out of his grandma’s house due to the accidental overdose of his one year old brother.

As I walked into his house, I met a very timid and shy young boy that hid in the kitchen for the first 10 minutes that I was there with the representative from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah. He finally ventured out of the kitchen and sat in a chair with his legs all balled up and hid behind a piece of paper while I talked with his aunt and signed the necessary agency paperwork. I tried to make small talk with my Little Brother about how school was today, what his favorite color was, how old he was, what he liked to do for fun…etc. All I got back from him was a shaking of the head indicating to me that he wasn’t interested in sharing such details with a stranger. Then I hit the nail on the head and asked the question that lifted his head and animated him. I nonchalantly asked him what his favorite T.V. show was. He suddenly became very excited and started talking about a cartoon called Ben10. At first I couldn’t even understand what he called the show. It sounded like some weird alien cartoon with an unrecognizable name. He suddenly stood up and started showing showing me exactly how the first episode of Ben10 played out. He was making the sound effects and actions to the whole episode.

A tradition at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah is to take a picture of the Big Brother and Little Brother together, the day that they are matched. My Little Brother did not like this idea and did not want to stand next to me to have our picture taken. He clung to his aunt and so I sat down on the floor with him and took our first picture of us together. I really hope to help him with his confidence.

It is recommended that you either plan your first activity together very soon or even possibly do something together the same day that you meet your match. I thought it might be a good idea to go grab a quick ice cream. This would allow us some one-on-one time and the chance to ask a few questions without everyone else around. When I asked my Little Brother if he would like to go grab an ice cream he slumped under the coffee table in the living room and began to cry. Man did I feel bad about making him cry already. His aunt reassured him that everything would be ok but he did not want to go with me and so I let the idea slip away and suggested that maybe we just hang out at his house for a little bit. He ran downstairs to get some Ben10 card game for us to play and his aunt explained that my Little Brother was worried about who I really was. He was afraid I was with another agency that was going to take him away. He was afraid that when I asked him to grab an ice cream with me, that it meant that I was going to take him from his Aunt and not return him. That I was tricking him into leaving and he wouldn’t come back here. I can not imagine the life that this 9 year-old has already gone through in his young life, but I am very excited to now become a part of it. I realize I have a lot of work ahead of me to gain his trust and confidence. I really hope that our relationship will last a very long time, like the relationship of my friend Ryan and his Little Brother.

We ended up playing the card game Ben10. My Little Brother told me about each of the characters on the deck of cards and what their special ability was and how they fit in the episodes of Ben10. Of course he won and was very excited about that. He then had to show me his two favorite transformers and then he wanted to build some aliens out of Logos with me. It was good to play around a little with his Legos and it gave us a chance to talk about his favorite color, which is green. I hate the color green. I was hoping he liked the color BLUE!!! I asked him what he wanted to do for our next event and he put his head down and said, "I don’t know…I don’t care…" After tinkering with a few more Legos he looked up at me and shyly asked if I would take him to see a shark. So we are off to see the Living Planet Aquarium on Saturday morning. I really hope he will actually leave the house with me and won’t think I am trying to kidnap him again. As I was leaving he asked me if he could give me a special Alien Lego gift he had just created. He was very excited to give me his little Alien Creature he had just created. He showed me how he took off his favorite green Lego from his spaceship he had created earlier and had put it on my Alien Creature. He explained where the eyes where and that the Alien had a hat on. He said it was a special alien and didn’t have feet but instead used boosters to get around. I was very thankful for the gift and my Little Brothers Alien Creature now sits on my desk at work.