To My Beautiful Little 16-Year-Old Sister,
Being your big sister is literally the biggest blessing of my life. For the last 16 years I have held your hand, made mud pies in grandmas sandbox, kissed you goodnight, punched you in the arm, stole your clothes, made you cry, cried because you did something, made fun of our parents, and became your best friend as well as your worst enemy.
On the days we don't get along, I thank you for giving me excitement and adrenaline as we chase each other around the house trying to hit the other, or hold one another in a headlock, or even call each other nasty names. It's exhilarating sometimes to have someone to boss around and scream at.
Moreover, on the days we are best friends, I thank you for coming to me with trustful heart and mind to gossip about the bitches who do you wrong, or drool about the boy who you like that week. I also thank you for answering my 1:30 a.m. phone calls on a Tuesday when I am away at college and you have school the next day as I sob from homesickness, boy troubles and stress. Friends come and go, but I am lucky that my best friend has to put up with me forever.
I know that to you turning 16 seems cool because you get the freedom of driving and being able to do what you want (so you think anyway), but I wrote you this to remind you that it is a lot more than a shiny license featuring your cheesy grin and dad's used Jeep.
Turning 16 is about to turn the tables of your life for the next few years. I know that sounds dramatic, but trust me. From here on out you're about to have a domino effect of important days and years to come.
In a few days you'll be getting your license. While it seems like the coolest thing to drive everywhere with your windows down during beautiful warm days, or even starry nights, please be safe and smart. Don't be a smartass and think that you can text and drive, don't do anything you are uncomfortable with, and always remember that you are responsible for everyone, INCLUDING yourself, so you better drive like it. You are my other half, and you matter to too many people to let anything bad happen. So remember when you're beyond excited and cannot wait to drive alone how careful and safe you must always be. ALWAYS.
In a few weeks you will be applying for a job. When you get a license and a car, you get a job (at least that's how we were raised). It sucks with school, and you will hate your life sometimes when you are stuck making sandwiches at Subway or wiping tables at the diner, but you will be thankful. You will thank mom and dad in a few years for forcing you to be responsible and the early start to working on your independence. And yes, you will even thank them for making you pay half your car insurance a month too. It sucks sometimes, but when you're off to college and realize how those little things have impacted you, you will really thank the jobs you will have and the methods of responsibility you will learn.
In a year you'll start preparing for your first prom and taking your first set of college-prep courses. It'll be a year about the bling, the boy, the biology, the brains and the bombass memories you will have. Your last two years of high school begin soon, and they will fly by faster than you will imagine, and faster than you secretly want. So pick out the dress that makes you feel sexy, kiss the boys you have always wanted, and study your butt off for that biology quiz over anaphase and prophase. These days will be the most memorable, even if they seem like nothing.
In two years from now you'll be 18 and at the rate where you think you are completely indestructible. You will claim adulthood like it is your bitch, and I will be laughing so hard when mom and dad are having an anxiety attack as you force them on a dozen college visits and choose the furthest one because they know you are the wild child. It seems like forever away, but literally you will be on those visits, asked what you want to be forever, and planning an over-rated graduation party faster than you imagine. Please don't take this time frame for granted, it is the best part. You figure out where your next big step will be, where you will be calling home, and who you are going to be after you get out of this town.
You see, I am not writing you this letter to just wish you another great year because that is a given, but it is to enlighten you to the matter that you have just began the best few years of your life. New doors and opportunities await for you. You are going to grow up so fast, and I have tears running down my cheeks right now because I am not sure if I am excited or sad. Looking back, those were the easiest and best times of my life, and I really wish I would've had a big sister/best friend to tell me to soak it in and thank our parents for the little things, treat high school like my kingdom, and to shake off all the insignificant BS and focus on the moment I was in. I wished it all away for college and adulting, and the life of being an "adult" sucks. Please don't wish it away or grow up too fast.
Turning 16 turned me into the person I am today, so keep that in mind over the duration of the next few years. I left for college and I knew how to drive safe for 200 miles because I remembered to be a safe driver. I understood how to do laundry, balance a check book, and pay my own bills because of the chores and jobs I was forced to do and have from our parents. I developed a great sense of balancing social and study skills due to the involvement that high school brought me. It all has a purpose.
Everything that is coming your way may seem like a lot somedays, and sometimes may even seem stupid or unimportant, but I promise you that you will be thankful that you took it slow and not for granted. Please be safe, please be smart, and please don't keep trying to grow up too fast, OK?
You are my little sister, my rock, sidekick, enemy, and (most importantly) my absolute very best friend.
Treat 16 like the exciting blessing it is, and embrace all the big things that are barging through those opportunistic doors. You are a beautiful, smart and responsible human being, and I can't wait to see how much you mature in the next few years.
I love you always and forever,
Your Annoying Big Sister.
