Sister Love

The magic of spending time with your siblings is something that I’ve taken for granted almost my whole life. Growing up, my two sisters and I have been very close and have had typical sibling relationships. We bully each other, but also care for each other in a way that no one else really can. Up until two years ago I took these amazing bonds for granted, but when my older sister Grace left for college, I started to realize how much I enjoyed our sibling time and doing even small, sometimes dumb things like making sugar cookies, but cutting out our own shapes instead of using cookie cutters. Throughout the past two years I’ve begun to appreciate spending time with my sisters a lot more, and just spending time around both of them makes me very happy.

            When Grace is away at college, I get to spend more time with my younger sister Laura, who I have a very different relationship with. Spending time with her makes me just as happy as spending time with Grace, but in a very different way. In contrast, my relationship with Grace, especially recently, has been a very supportive one where many of our conversations are about more serious things and sharing advice with each other. This is great for both of us and makes me happy because I know that she loves me very much, and I feel that I gain something every time I talk to her. Laura, on the other hand, spends most of her time with me joking around and fighting with me. I have just as much fun with Laura, but in a very different way. I have many fun memories of playing with, fighting with, and partying with Laura, and she never fails to have a good time. Because we have lived together all of our lives, we fight a LOT, but it almost always ends in both of us laughing.

            One of my best memories with Laura was two years ago during winter break. Since neither of us really had anything going on for the entire two weeks off school, we spent a lot of time with each other. The majority of our time was spent crafting Christmas presents and fighting… physically. We decided it would be a good idea to get our energy out by wrestling each other on the soft carpet of our basement, while my mom was upstairs and had no idea. Every time we did this, it ended in me sitting on her and making fun of her weak self. Looking back, I’m a little bit scared because now she is taller and stronger than me. I’m a little worried that my older sister dominance wouldn’t be enough to help me win if we got in a fight. A good memory that I have with Grace was a time when I spent a weekend staying in her dorm with her in Bloomington. She currently attends ISU and last fall her roommate was out of town for a weekend, so she had the brilliant idea to have me come and stay with her for a couple days. It was a lot of fun, even though the majority of our time was spent studying at the library (this was a big school-filled week for both of us). It was a lot of fun for me to feel like a cool college kid for a couple days as well as get to spend time with Grace and see her favorite coffee shop, study place, and park.

            The picture below pretty accurately sums up the relationship of my sisters and me. I typically greet Laura by punching her and then doing our handshake, while I greet Grace by walking up to her and standing stiffly with my arms at my side so that she can hug me. I wouldn’t change my relationship with either of my sisters for anything, and each one of us works so well with the others even though we are all very different. Spending time with either or (preferably) both of my sisters never fails to make me smile and we always have a good time, no matter what we are doing.