Growing Up

This is a very different and personal post, but I couldn’t help but think about this after the last couple of months and I don’t mind sharing.

Ask anyone that knows my family, if you stick my two little brothers and I in the same house together, you get a lot of noise from our bickering. Remove one from the equation and you get complete silence. Normally, I am the quiet one who observes and tries to keep the commotion to a minimum which is probably surprising. We’ve been like that ever since we were little, but I’d say that as we’ve gotten older, the arguments about minor problems are rare. Instead of arguing about who did what amongst each other, it is now who did what to my brother or sister with everyone else. As the three of us have continued “growing up”, the bond between us as siblings has also grown.

Being a big sister has always come with its hardships. You’re the mediator for the fights between the boys and you’re also the one who will set an example for them as they are learning how to deal with their own life. I’ve helped them with school, personal issues, and life in general while dealing with my own. It has not been an easy task, but someone had to teach them the ropes. While we sat there at dinner the other day, I couldn’t help but think that they are both adults now. CK just turned 20 which obviously means he is no longer a teenager. I still help him with college classes and girl advice from time to time, but he has begun to take on his own personality. He’s not that shy little boy he used to be and I’m proud that he is more assertive when it comes to experiencing new things. AK will be 18 this November and graduated from high school last month. I’ve been helping him with financial aid papers and college applications this year. It feels like I took a step back in time and I can remember that I was the one who did this by myself and I was able to make this process simple for him.

This feels like the end of being that big sister for the both of them, because they are finally able to do everything without me, but I know it isn’t really over. I’ll still be there when they need advice for anything that needs to be overcome. I’ll probably still be the one that they call when there is a paper due and they need help with MLA formatting. And I’ll always be the person they can talk to when they don’t want Mom and Dad to know something. I know I’m only 22, but I hope that they both know that there is a lot to growing up and life is not always going to be easy, but with a little hard work everything ends up falling into place eventually. In the future, we might be living very far apart from each other, but I’ll always be your big sister and I’m just a phone call away. (Good luck C and A, I love you guys!)

Tagged as: Family, Personal