Everyone remembers the wide spectrum of emotions they experienced as it came time to graduate high school. Now that you’re a college student with some time between you and high school, you wonder why you made such a big deal out of graduating. But one day, maybe through a phone conversation, a text message, or your own realization, it hits you: your younger sibling is about to graduate, and the emotions come rushing back.

Shock

You can’t believe it. They have always been your number two, your partner in crime. They were the one you always went home from school with, grabbed an afternoon snack together and indulged in the latest gossip, vented about teachers and assignments, and blasted music throughout the house that you two wouldn’t be caught dead playing in front of your parents. To you, your younger sibling seems to have always been stuck in perpetual youth even as you continued to grow older. You could always count on them being busy until three in the afternoon because, still being a mere high schooler, they had to actually go to all of their classes every day. But now those days are over.

Shock (Again)

This time it’s for your own sake. While your sibling is excited about graduating, you endure a miniature existential crisis. Has it really been that long since I graduated high school? What do I have to show for it? How much longer will it be until my next sibling graduates? Where will I be in life when that happens? Our younger sibling having reached a milestone in life causes us to examine our own, perhaps resulting in more panic than we might like to admit.

Acceptance

You come to terms with what is happening. You remember that the signs have always been there, warning this day would come; their thirteenth birthday, marking the passage into those tumultuous teenage years, or the day they received their driver’s license. But as much as we older siblings might try otherwise, we have to confront the reality of time. The years sneak by, people grow up, and sooner or later we are forced to accept that even our beloved younger siblings must cross the threshold into adulthood.

Love

At the end of the day, you are happy for them. Reflecting on your own experience you remember the joy, sadness, excitement, and apprehension all contained in the simple act of walking across a stage and being handed a piece of paper. However, you know that graduating high school is much more than having a diploma. It signifies the last steps towards true adulthood. It is now their time to go out and make their mark on the world. It’s their turn to begin the pursuit of higher education, perhaps even having the opportunity to become a part of Greek life.

You are excited to see them embark on this next part of their journey, and take a quiet satisfaction knowing that you have been a major influence in the time leading up to this point. But above all, you know you will continue to provide constant love, unwavering support, and a helping hand so that no matter where the twists and turns of life might lead, your sibling knows you will always be there for them.