I became a big sister when I was 3 years old. It hadn’t even been a week when I said to my mom, “I want her to go back.” I wasn’t the only child attracting all of the attention anymore and it’s been a wild ride ever since. Having a younger sister has taught me a lot about my responsibility as an older sibling. Here are a few things that I’ve taken from our relationship:
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
When we were younger, I felt like I had my own mini me following me around. Every toy I wanted, she wanted too. When I was obsessed with Hilary Duff, suddenly she was too. As annoyed as I was, I didn’t realize that I was simply becoming a role model.
You can’t change someone to be the person you want them to be.
Now that we are older, I realize that throughout our sisterhood, I’ve also tried to make my sister more like myself. I used to force her to sit down next to me and let me read her a book and then I would get frustrated when she wouldn’t listen past the second page. I liked books and my sister liked TV. I’ve grasped that there are many ways that we differ yet many ways in which we are alike.
Sometimes you just need to let loose.
My sister and I have developed our own personalities now that I am 20 and she’s 17. I’ve always been the uptight one, always planning a schedule and needing everything to be perfect and everyone to be on time. My sister is the opposite. She’s the one to go with the flow and is much more relaxed. She’s helped me see that life is too short to always be on top of things and sometimes you just have to do without a plan every once in a while. Otherwise you’ll drive yourself crazy.
And finally a warning to all out there that dare mess with my sister:
It’s only okay when I call her names like butthead or boogerface and even though I’m not a big brother and I may only be 5’1”, I still feel the same urge to hunt down any boy who makes her cry.