Ode to My Big Sister

I am blessed to have two sisters, one older and one younger. We are far-flung, but all reachable within a few hours or so, depending on mode of travel. I often think how nice it would be if we lived much closer, but on the other hand, I think it’s nice to travel and see another part of the country once in a while. My big sister lives in a big, fun city and she lives in a fabulous apartment and doesn’t mind me crashing whenever I want…well, I always give lots of notice and now that she’s an empty-nester, she has lots of room! Today is her birthday, and since I can’t be there, I thought I’d write a blog about growing up and growing older with her.

One of my earliest memories of her is about her love of the Beatles, or rather her adoration of George Harrison. I remember her watching the news coverage of a live performance where several girls close to the stage fainted and were taken away in an ambulance. My sister, just a little girl herself, was savvy enough to declare that those girls were fools…they missed the concert! My next memory of her is watching Dark Shadows together. I was too young to understand the storyline and therefore was “un-scare-able”. She’d sit on the couch with me in front of her and when something scary would happen, she’d duck her head behind me and ask me to tell her when the scary part was over!

As we got older, I learned by observation that her confrontational style about house rules got her in trouble every once in a while, or caused arguments with our parents that she lost. I therefore developed the “middle-child” style of breaking the rules first and asking for forgiveness and taking my punishment later (or rather, not getting caught in the first place).

When we hit our teens, there were three teen girls in the family all at once! Our dad was working full time and going to law school full time too…so with him out of the house a lot, our home was quite full of estrogen and drama.

Even though my sister was older than me, I always wanted the same privileges and experiences as she did…when she went off to college as I started high school, I was impatient. I wanted to skip straight to college. This was only exacerbated when we took her to college freshman year and someone mistook me for a college student! With her off at college for four years, the drama mellowed and she became this grown-up person who made decisions on her own and did things like go abroad for a year, take road trips, and make friends and date people we didn’t even know! Oh, how I wanted to be in college and all grown-up too!

My senior year in high school, just after I’d picked my college, she told me that she was going to graduate school at the same place. I was so surprised and happy! I was also completely shocked when our parents agreed to let us take a road trip that summer to visit the school and city over 600 miles away. Wow! Being an adult was SO cool! Off we went. I don’t remember doing any of the driving…my sister has always been a road-tripper able to put in 10+ hours of driving in a day. I don’t remember much of the trip, but I remember being in a popular local landmark which is very high…I was leaning over a window looking down to the street when I heard a faint “Laura? Laura? Please get away from the window!”…that was how I learned that my fearless sister is afraid of heights. You learn things on a road trip.

She has preceded me through graduate school, first job, marriage, and children. Now she is preceding me to 50 and empty-nest years. My mom always used to tell me, “don’t wish your life away”, so I guess I must have often voiced my desire to be older, like my sister. I have finally slowed down enough to appreciate where I am in my life and therefore to appreciate in a new way that I am blessed with a big sister who can help me navigate whatever comes next.

Happy Birthday, Sis! Find the Joy in the Journey!

 

Related post: Ode to My Baby Sister