My sister is five and a half years older than me and I adored her from the very beginning. When we were younger, it was easy to get caught up in playing make believe and Barbie dolls to make the time fly by. My fondest memories of us together are those that include playing in the sprinkler in the front yard during the summer time to cool off, "camping out" in a certain yellow tent that somehow managed to live about ten years no matter how tattered and torn it was, running around the yard in the evening time with mason jars trying to catch more lightening bugs than the other, and being allowed to eat our pizza in the living room during dinner so we wouldn't miss one second of TGIFriday on ABC. She was easily my very best friend.
Of course, as time went by our age difference started to be more of a gap than a bond. She was becoming a teenager while I was still just a kid. While I began to annoy her more than anything, she was still who I looked up to more than anyone else. I desperately tried to cling to her when I could by volunteering to be the bat girl for her softball team and pretty much being a butler to her and her friends whenever they came to our house. Looking back I probably looked pretty pathetic but I just wanted to find a way to be a part of her world in any way I could. During her junior high and high school years she had the best of friends, was in the best marching band our high school had ever seen, was dating the preacher's son, and seemed to have the world at her fingertips. She even got accepted to Texas A&M, which was a huge deal to our family. I was in awe.
Eventually the pedestal I had built for her would crumble. For several months my heart broke a little each day as I became aware of lies she had told. What I didn't know was that my sister was dealing with more than I ever could have imagined. After trying to mend the bridge between us, my sister ended up pregnant nearly a year after the family drama had begun. She had been hiding it while she and her boyfriend tried to grasp what was about to happen to their lives. One week we found out she was pregnant, the next week that she would have a girl, and the next week I had the most precious niece in my arms. In that whirlwind of time, I began to see my sister in a whole new light and my world changed forever as I became an aunt.
In the years since then, my sister has remained a pillar of strength that I could look towards for wisdom. She had her fair share of heart ache, pain and suffering, but handled it with such grace. She is now a wife, mother and will soon be a RN, but she'll always be my one and only sister. The sister that taught me how to dig throught the presents under the Christmas tree and try to guess what each one of them were. The sister that I chased around the house once with an umbrella trying to beat her because she didn't want to spend time with me and had hurt my feelings... that ended with my 300lb grandmother literally sitting on me until our parents got home. (a story that of course is now one that is retold every Christmas) The sister that helped me make it through the months that our father spent in ICU, when our parents eventually divorced and all the ensuing drama that unfolded. The sister that was ever encouraging through every uphill battle I've ever faced in life and the one who always congratulated me for making it to the top. I love her and am truly blessed to call her "sister".
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