The day my sister was born, I asked my mother if we could return her. I know what you are thinking… what an awful person, but in my defense, I was 3 years old and I did not know what to expect from this creature. I had been the light of my parents’ life for three glorious years and I was not ready for a little rug-rat to ruin things just yet, maybe not ever if I am being honest. Fast forward 17 years later, the sister I asked to return had grown to be one of my closest friends and one of my worst critics. Just when I was finally getting used to the idea of not being an only child, our parents threw my sister and I another curveball that would change my life again for the second time around: my parents were expecting another baby. A very surprising, unplanned child that I did not think I would ever be able to love. I never believed in a million years that at the age of seventeen I would be welcoming another sister into my life, and especially one I did not want. I spent the nine months of my mother’s pregnancy in anger and fear of what this would do to my life and my family. Though it was selfish, I was afraid my mother was trying to replace me seeing as I was going off to college in the fall and that this child would take away from my life in some negative way. What would my friends think? What would everyone in my hometown say? I was, however, so utterly wrong and completely off target, though I fought it with every ounce of my being. The moment that eight pound baby was placed into my arms, my life truly changed forever. A cliché I know, yet it is full of truth.

“Though she be tiny, she is fierce.” That little girl had me wrapped around her finger from the moment we locked eyes. I would come home from cheerleading and dance eager to just hold her. The fear I experienced earlier in my mother’s pregnancy that my family would fall apart turned out to be simply just a fear. In fact, we became closer and have continued to grow stronger each day. Though our relationships have changed, they have changed for the better. The baby completed our family when we were unaware something was missing. I am now grateful for this experience and both of my younger sisters. I look forward to the weekends when I can come home and spend time with them.

Growing up, my mother has always used the words, “you fight big, but you love bigger” to describe the relationship I share with my sister who is three years younger than me. However, I think it can also describe the relationship between both my sisters and myself. The tiny two year old can hold her own in arguments with a twenty and seventeen year old and has more love in one bone than some do throughout their entire body.

I have come to the conclusion within the last two years that though I am the oldest, I am not the wisest. Each of my sisters teaches me something new everyday. Life lessons that I should have discovered on my own yet only pushed home when I saw them display these lessons in their everyday lives. It is an honor to be their older sister and a privilege that I do not take lightly. I hope that one day I can repay them for everything they have given me. I hope they know I will always love them and would do anything for them. They are so special to me and by being their older sister I have become a better person.

God places blessings in our lives in the most unconventional, yet extraordinary ways. I do not want to think about my life without that joyful little two year old in it or the sarcastic, hilarious seventeen year old either. He knew just what I needed and for that I am grateful. Though they may not feel the same way in regards to my role as their older sister, I wish to leave them with this quote: “I smile because you are my sister and I laugh because there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.”