Day 11 – Your siblings
A few days ago, I wrote of my best friend S. I failed to mention that I also have another best friend, my sister A.
A was born three and a half years after me. She was the baby of the family. My mother came from a family with two girls, and I know it meant a lot to her to have two girls as well.
A and I didn't always get along very well. A lot of our childhood was spent with her tailing after me, and me trying to rid myself of her. I wasn't exactly the best of big sisters, but I did have her back, and I think she knows that. If other people were to pick on her, they would get the brunt of sisterly force. Because, dammit, she was my sister and if anyone was going to pick on her, it was going to be me!
We were polar opposites. I was content to sit inside listening to music, reading a book. A wanted to be outside, in the dirt, in the garage. She built things. She was a daddy's girl. It wasn't until I finally moved out of the house that she and I became friends.
At that time, I was the older sister who could drive and had my own apartment. I was the perfect person to find someone to buy her beer, or a place to hide out when our parents got to be too much for her. I was always the go-to when there was a party she wanted to go to, but needed a place to say she was staying. Of course, she was never as good at lying as I was, and usually got caught. My mother was pretty sneaky herself.
A liked punk music. She liked harder rock, and scream-o. Her junior year of high school she cut her hair into a mohawk. She would dye it black. She wore all black.
She was a junior in high school the year Aiden was born. She has been the world's greatest Aunt to him.
While I had a child a year after graduating high school, A went away for college. She went all the way to Tulsa, OK and graduated with a degree in Avionics from Spartan College of Aeronautics. There, she met her boyfriend. They both were hired onto a very good company in Iowa, and made the move there together. The transition was difficult for her, but she has really found her place. They bought a house there late last year. I'm assuming there will eventually be a ring, and a wedding, but for now they seem to be happy with where they are together.
A has done all of the right things, the right way. Even though I'm the older sister, I feel like I'm constantly three steps behind her. Like it should be my job to take care of my baby sister. To offer her money when she needs it, even if she never accepts it. Not the other way around. I envy my sister her choices, and her place in life. I also am so proud of her for them.
She is always only a phone call away. I know this. She is the best of the best of friends, because I know she loves me despite all of my flaws (and she knows them all.) She is my strength and my courage and my inspiration. She is the person who will call me after a boy breaks my heart, and cry on the phone with me.
She makes me laugh. I love her.
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