Nov 10 2008
The little sister
I am the baby of the family and I have an older brother. We are six years apart. Whenever we talk about starting our own families, we always say we want to have our kids closer together.
For a long time, I didn’t enjoy being the younger sister. My brother would tease me about the Boogeyman and could do an exact impersonation of Freddy Krueger. (I’m still scared of Freddy to this day and I’m in my mid-20s!)
Of course I was the little annoying sister. I’d sneak into my brother’s room while he was doing his homework. I would try to kick him. I would break his toys by accident when I was really little like 4 years old.
When my brother was accepted into college, it was hard for me. Although he would tease me, I didn’t want him to leave. He chose a school that was about five or six hours away. I remember after we—my mom, my dad and I– got him settled in his dorm room we waved goodbye with tears in our eyes, we started on our six-hour journey home. I laid down in the backseat of the van with tears streaming down my face. I wanted to be tough, but I just couldn’t.
My brother would come home mostly on holidays. He’d take a train or bus. I remember I would cry after he would board the train or step on the bus. It was horrible being an only child in those years. I missed playing Mortal Combat on Sega with him.
One good thing college did for our relationship is bring us closer. We would catch up a lot on breaks and even do brother and sister things like mini-golf or movie nights.
I can honestly say I like being the younger sister now. There’s a mutual respect between us on top of a lot of great memories. Luckily, he married someone I could become close with too. It’s great to have family members you can talk to when you’re having a bad day.
