Forever Friend

Everyone I have ever known who has a sister told me all of the time, "You fight now, but when you're adults you'll be closer than ever." I never thought so and I would flippantly ask why. I got several replies to that from "The distance will bring you together" to "You'll be able to see all of the good things about your sister without having to live with all of the bad." Either way it boiled down to not living under the same roof for some unknown period of time.

I went to Chicago for a weekend in the sixth grade. That wasn't long enough. I went to Washington DC for a week in the eighth grade. That wasn't long enough either. I took a nine day excursion to Spain, which I thought would do the trick since I had an ocean separating us too. That kind of worked. I missed her, but I still didn't get what all of those people had told me. I put the idea of achieving a mutually voluntary friendship with my sister out of my mind for the next two years.

Today was an ordinary day. I got up, went to work, got off, took my sister to work, went home, did chores, picked my sister up from work, went home, had dinner, and my sister went out with friends. (Mind you, I will be nineteen next week and the sister in question, Mara, is sixteen.)

Today is not the first day I've complained that she's gone out several nights a week in the last month or so either. She asked why I care so much and my mom, jokingly, said, "Maybe she misses you." She didn't know that she wasn't so far off.
I'm preparing to go off to college and have all of these new adventures, but I haven't gone yet. I still live under the same roof as Mara, but I finally understand what all of those people had said over the years. My sister was my only playmate as a child. We would take over the entire house when Mom and Dad were at work and create whole towns out of the 7 or 8 rooms on the first floor. We would transform ourselves into businesswomen, lawyers, brides, police officers, doctors, housewives, high school students, and teachers. Together we never had to be afraid if someone was judging us for drinking hot chocolate out of Propel bottles or stuffing doll babies up our shirts. Mara would always have my back when I needed her and vice versa (although she usually ended up in the "protector" role). She never made fun of me because I loved homework back then and she let me read to her once because she knew how sad it made me when she could read on her own.

With my impending move and her being with friends all the time I have finally reached the point where, all irritations aside, I miss being my little sister's best friend and role model. I have discovered what those people meant when they said my sister and I would be closer than ever.
We aren't that close right now, but I can see the cross over on the horizon. I can't wait to have my playmate back. I know she won't judge me and she'll provide help when I ask for it. She will be my confidante and my protector. Instead of pretending to be police officers and lawyers, we'll actually be them. Replacing our hot chocolate-filled Propel bottles will be actual travelmugs of coffee or tea. Replacing conversations on which make believe game we should play will be conversations about which paths in our lives we should take. I'm excited for that relationship with my sister and I can see the flowers beginning to bloom.

If you have a sister, I stand by what those people all told me so long ago. "When you're adults, you'll be closer than ever." And when it comes to sisters distance definitely "makes the heart grow fonder."

Real Edumacation

Firstly, I am so sorry it's been awhile. The last couple months have been crazy and I was searching for a little inspiration of my own.

I graduated about a month ago. That was a very surreal experience for me. I've learned a lot in the last four years of high school, especially to prepare me for college. However, high school doesn't do much to prepare you for the "real world." In the last month I've learned an awful lot about that reality, so I thought I'd share my experiences.

First, when people tell you that money isn't everything...well...it may not be everything, but it sure is a lot of things. Especially when you have none. I always laughed when my mom warned me that I'd be a poor college student, but now I see the reality of it.

I'm paying for my own education, and even though I received my university's top scholarship (full tuition), it still leaves about ten thousand dollars a year for everything else. I'm hoping to be a Resident Assistant, which would help with about three fourths of that, but there are still ten thousand dollars to be paid off in my first year. That is a lot of dough, especially when I still need a car and all kinds of supplies for living on campus. Every dollar counts.

Second, no one wants to hire a college student. I got one job interview this summer and no call back after that. McDonalds didn't even call. So I had to buy a car with only my graduation funds, and not just a car, but plates, registration, the title transfer, and insurance too.

Third, buying a car is not fun, not exciting, and is probably one of the worst things to do ever. Not only did I have to seek out the very few cars in my price range, but I had to do it by going to every dealership within twenty miles and then some. A lot of dealerships didn't even have cars in my college budget range. Calling an ad from the paper resulted in nothing as it was already gone. And then...I found one. There was a car with a sign in it sitting in the library parking lot. It looked like a nice car and it had my one hopeful: air conditioning.

I called the number and scheduled a test drive. My dad and I took the car for a spin and he took a look under the hood. He poked around for a while and pointed a few things out to me. The car was sitting in my driveway and I had a great feeling about it....WHAP! There's the "no." There was an indication of a very serious problem with the engine that would be a pretty pricey fix.

However my dad is anything if not thorough, so he called the seller's husband and spoke to him about the car. Turns out the guy had already rebuilt the engine to prevent the engine problem. Mom came in and told me that I had a car. The next day I signed the title and took my car home. Within four days I had seen, test driven, bought, and registered my car. It was pretty wild.

I named my car Penny after it's color and swore to take immaculate care of it so it would last through college.

Life's lessons are pretty tough when you're learning them. They're definitely harder than high school. The rewards those lessons bring, though, are forever. The knowledge gained through these three problems will be used frequently (hopefully not too frequently) in the future. Stay positive and let life's lessons inspire.