I would like to first mention that I did not want you in my life. You were a chubby, loud, and stinky little baby who I wanted to return because it meant that I would no longer be the center of attention. But I am so glad that God knew how much I needed you in my life even when I didn’t.

You’ve been there for me through literally all of the good and bad times. You are one of the few people who I feel comfortable enough to divulge my secrets and cry in front of. We were both raised by the same amazingly crazy woman, so you understand why I’m a little messed up, and you accept me for that, just as I accept you

I never imagined that the annoying twerp who was stealing all of the clothes from my closet without permission would become my best friend. I absolutely hated living with you eighty-five percent of the time, but now that I am living on my own and you are forty minutes away from me, I don’t know how to survive. Every time something amazing happens to me, I want to immediately go home and tell you about it just like I used to when I was home. How do people go through their lives without someone like you? I miss seeing you every darn day, even the days when I wanted to strangle you. I miss dragging you out of bed for school. I miss threatening to make you ride the bus if you didn’t do what I wanted you to do. I miss having my own human Barbie doll. I miss being your chauffeur. I miss complaining about our parents together. I miss running together during cross country and listening to you threaten to quit every day, even though we both knew you weren’t going anywhere.

I remember when we were younger how we would sneak into each other’s bed after bedtime, which wasn’t hard to do considering we shared a room. We would stay up late talking and playing with our Bratz, thinking about how cool we were for not getting caught, even though mom knew we were up the entire time. Life is so different now that I can’t just sneak into your bed and talk about life at two in the morning. I just can’t understand how someone I can fight so much with can still remain my best friend. If I had a dollar for every time we got into a literal fist fight, I’d have enough money to pay rent for you to live with me. I always thought that the only reason we were so close was because we lived together and had absolutely no choice, but I was wrong. Seeing how mature you have become and the beautiful young woman you’ve developed into makes me so proud to call you my sister. You turn 16 in a matter of weeks, and I just do not know how I feel about that.

You are supposed to stay my fat, crying baby sister, but yet you’ve become a beautiful twig that burps loud and obsesses over her Instagram. But with every day you age, I just remind myself that it is one day closer to you being old enough to drive to visit me instead of me coming to you. Just know that there is always room for you in my bed at two in the morning when you need to talk, no matter how far apart we are. I know we have three other sisters, but we both know that we are each other’s favorite.