Being the youngest in my family, I have the joy of saying that I've always had sisters in my life. There are some days when I kind of wonder what it would have been like if we had a brother, but for the most part, having sisters is amazing. For starters, we're all about the same size, including our mom, so we can all swap and borrow clothes and sometimes shoes from each other. There are some articles of clothing that have been drifting around in our swap pile for years because after one of us is done with them, the others decide they want it back and so on and so forth.

But it's not just clothes that makes having sisters great. Having a sister that's seven years apart from me, I was able to see what middle school, high school, and college would be like because she went through it first. She paved the way for me and my other sister and set up expectations for us in high school; teachers knew who our sister was by the time we got to high school. My other sister and I are only two years apart, so by the time I was a freshman and she was a junior, my teachers had a pretty good idea of who the White girls were. I don't know how many times my teachers would call me, "Morgan," and I would just go along with it because I knew they were talking to me (Morgan and I apparently look a lot alike). Even today, in college, when the professor calls, "Morgan," I'm so close to answering them until I realize there is an actual Morgan in the class and my professor has no clue who my sister even is. There was an occasion or two when my teachers would call me, "Lauren," in high school, but that was pretty rare.

Beyond school, we had home life, as all children do. We never needed a babysitter because Lauren was old enough to watch us by herself. We would play hide-n-go-seek throughout the house and make keychain animals with pony beads and plastic string. Lauren would set up a classroom in her bedroom and Morgan and I would be students (we actually did learn a lot during those sessions). We'd push the couch to the opposite side of the living room and see if we could make it onto the loveseat by jumping off the ledge in the foyer. And we'd pretend the playroom was covered in lava and attempt to make it from one side of the room to the other without touching the floor. There was a lot more we did together and against each other, but I say all this because I have extremely fond memories of my childhood and growing up with my sisters.

Which is why, being the last of us in college, this year is challenging for me. Having one sister living about an hour away and the other sister halfway around the world on the World Race, I feel pretty alone. While I do have friends, there is a certain void that only a sister can fill. We share secrets, laughs, inside jokes, testimonies, and sisterly-love. There are some things only a sister can tell you and you don't take it too harshly because they're your sister. A friend could tell you the exact same things, but coming from a sister, it's different. That's what makes them so great.

Sunday, August 6, 2017 is National Sister's Day (if you were curious to know). If you have a sister, or even if you don't, you don't have to wait until August to let them know how much they mean to you. And though it's not required, gifts are encouraged *insert winking-face here*.

"Sister is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship." -Margaret Mead