cherishing sisterhood

This week I decided to focus my appreciation on someone very special, my sister. She is my only sister, we have a rather large age difference, I am younger by 8 years, and we are very different in terms of personalities and interests are not quite similar, but she has always stood by me in ways I have not fully realized are considerate until now.

Already during my childhood, I realized that we were quite dissimilar. She could never be the tomboy she was the feminine type; paying much attention to her appearance and the feeling that she loved dressing up. At the same time, I was less feminine and preferred to play with my brothers, making mud puddles and constructing various types of shelters with my younger brother. However, my sister has never seemed to mind that there were such differences and actively incorporated me into her life. Of course, the same woman would take me to buy girly toys even though I would prefer to do something else. I have a very early memory with her which is her replacing the Barbie dolls that I used to lose and then playing with me for hours.

There’s a memory that stands out the most: I remember on a day that was my tenth birthday and nobody seemed to care she presented me with a box full of hair ties and clips in my preferred range of colour. It was just a little hug, but it touched me in a big way I could not speak for joy, and all this happened at the age when a child could hardly learn the words ‘thank you’ properly. However, we even both have the same birth month, therefore we both always remember each other’s birthday very well.


Personally, when I was younger, I used to share my bedroom with my sister. For this reason, Dad though got two of us he had to buy a bunk bed for us to sit because we had nowhere else to squat. I slept on the top berth, and she was given the lower one. There was a time we quarrelled severely though I do not know what my mistake was that angered her. Yes, she was really angry with me and due to this she locked me in a room one night and left me all alone. Usually, we left the door ajar revealing a line of light from the kitchen; however, she closed it fully, fully aware of my fear of the dark. It is rather amusing now, looking back, that I’ve forgotten the whole reason why she was angry at me in the first place; After a while, she came back in, and there was her kindness again.

Furthermore, before I opted for my normal evening nap my sister and I had a special game that we used to play. These are scenes concerning mom who urged me to lie down and my sister who was also sometimes encouraged to put me to sleep. We would not just lay down on bed as we used to do those extra hours in the bedroom but engage in a game my sister developed. She faked to be a radio which its face was an interface. If I pressed her buttons she would sing songs, read the news and even mimic different language announcers. It was incredibly amusing, more so because I can now seriously regret not being able to have more fun like that.

Honestly speaking, I have lots of fun memories I could share regarding my interpersonal communication with my sister. The ones I remember in detail are when we went hand in hand for water spinach at the pond, the day she took time teaching me how to ride a bicycle, the Christmas eve I willingly trailed behind her to sing carols from house to house only to get a stomachache because I didn’t take supper time scoldings from mom.

Looking at these moments now I can see that not only all the things that were listed above but a lot of other things my sister has done for me in the past, which I have never paid attention to. Every one of them shows how kind she is, and how special our relationship is, so I appreciate that she is my sister.

To be truthful, she and I used to be close friends at a certain point of time, but she left our state to attend university and thus, we are not really close anymore. Many a times I hardly see her during my teenage years, and to some extent I hardly required the presence of my elder sister figure which my mom turned out to be in all the circumstances. We still speak on the phone and sometimes we even visit one another but the distance has reduced the level of revelation that was there in our relationships. This has made me more rather reserved over time. However, now that both of us are grown up we have become so different, and I believe we both have a better understanding of each other. In school, we may not be under the same roof as before when we were young, but for me I know that my sister has my back and for her same is true because we both have a bond that is unbreakable.

Lastly, to my dear sister who may be reading this later, please do not laugh at me, although I know that today, I am feeling a little cheesy, but I never knew how much I can be grateful for having a sister like you. So, consider yourself lucky. I thank you for the things you do for me even if I don’t always express it in words, I want you to be richer so that you can shower me with your stuff; even if you spend money on yourself, in one way or the other I will end up with it if we are together.