To my half sister,

Sissy, I have to be completely honest.

I wish you weren't my half sister.

It's too difficult. Having to explain to people why we look so different, why we grew up in different places and why most of the time you are not around. When I was little I had to pretend you weren't even real sometimes, just so I didn't have to explain to people why my sister didn't live in my house. Not that it was or is anyone else's business. Yet people always still asked and I felt the need to answer.

Now that I am older I can be content with the fact you are only half of me and I can handle answering people's honest curiosity. Yet as I enter adulthood, and you live in the thick of it, now is a better time than ever to get it all off my chest.

I wish you weren't my half sister because that demeaning title takes away from the true importance you serve in my life.

Maybe we didn't grow up in the same house. This only made us closer though. Never have I met two sisters more excited to see each other than us. We may have not had each other a room away every single day, but boy did we make our short moments together count. Age, distance and blood relation could never really keep us apart.

Maybe we do not look the same, but who wants to look the same anyways? I always wanted to be just like you. In every way. Your hair and skin and clothes always made me want to grow up faster so I could look like you. Then I grew up and realized I would never look like you because I look like me. A little taller, a little lighter and eyes a different color. It's OK though, because on the outside we are unique and on the inside I know we share similarities where it matters. An affinity for travel, a vice for clothing and dreams so big people look at us funny. We are the same where it counts.

And, yes, Maybe we weren't there for each other in all the big moments. Graduations. Proms. Thanksgiving here and there. It's OK though because the seemingly big moments are never really that important. It's the small ones that really stick with you. Staying up into the early hours of the morning, side by side on Pinterest. Singing in the car. Playing with makeup (even at this age). Those are the memories I hold closest to my heart.

I wish you weren't my half sister because people do not realize how much it hurts to suggest you are half of anything. You are a full and bright figure in my life that I would never trade anything in the world for, not even for a sibling I share two parents with instead of one.

So just in case you didn't know or forgot for some reason. I appreciate you every day and I thank my extremely lucky stars that not only did God give me a sister, but He gave me you (so sentimental I know, usually here I would insert a joke...).

You're my half sister.

But that doesn't mean anything because I whole love you.

Sincerely,

Your Sister