Most little kids are delighted to meet their first sibling; I was not. I was almost 5 years old with an attitude like fire and a mouth to match when my sister was born.
I had mixed feelings about her from the very start. What was this little pink, squishy, blanket-wrapped thing that my mom was urging me to hold? Why is she here? More importantly, why were my parents so fascinated with her?
I had extreme jealousy issues with her when she was born. Over the next few years, I got used to her being there.
I remember getting off the school bus one day during fifth grade when she was about 5 years old. She got home from school before me, so she and my mom would always be waiting for me at the bus stop.
I remember that she used to be so excited to see me that she would run up to the bus door and hop around excitedly as I was getting off.
“Hi Sami,” she would yell over the roar of the engine. She would hug me and start talking nonstop about her day.
“Oh my god, Kylie, get off of me,” I would grumble, pushing her away. I never noticed how upset and heartbroken she would get.
I would always shun her, wishing that she would just leave me alone. My mom would always get extremely upset at me for being so mean to her.
“I just don’t understand,” my mother would tell me. “My older sisters always loved me and took care of me when we were growing up.”
I never really noticed how genuinely sad it made my mother to see me despise Kylie so much.
Over the years since then, something changed. I started wanting to have a relationship with her.
She is my best friend now. It’s weird, beginning to know your younger sibling as an actual person with actual feelings and thoughts.
She has the biggest heart for everybody and she is so much smarter than I’ll ever be.
Our sense of humor is so similar – sarcasm with a hint of self-deprecation, irony and satire. We know each other’s likes and dislikes and hopes and dreams.
We have become sisters in the best sense. Though she and I are like fire and ice, yin and yang, we get along so well.
We always try to make time for each other, even though we both have crazy, hectic lives. One of the things that I love about living at home and going to college is that I can still find time to spend with my family.
Kylie will be 16 in March and it’s hard to believe that the girl that I once loathed and wished would disappear is now growing up to be such a smart, beautiful young lady.
Sure we still fight – a lot. Petty arguments turn into World War III more often than not. One second I want to kill her and the next, I’d kill for her.
But most importantly, I love my sister unconditionally. Even though I’m obligated to love her, it doesn’t feel like an obligation; Kylie will forever be my best friend and I’d be lost without her.
SAMANTHA GRISWOLD
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