As a teenager of this day and age, I find myself scrolling through up and down Instagram or the camera roll on my phone when I want to relive old memories. My family only recently became interested in preserving photographs. Earlier, all of our photographs were thrown in boxes with little care for the time or location where the photo was taken. I have taken it upon myself to scan countless images into our family's computer, making sure the contextual facts were correct. As a result, my phone contains many different, old photographs.
While I was scanning all of these photos, I came across an image that particularly caught my eye. It was a picture of my younger sister, Jennifer, and me posing in front of our Christmas tree. While the setting of the photo has not changed at all, it is obvious that the subjects have changed immensely.
Not only have we, as individuals, changed, but our relationship as well. When we were little, my sister adored me and seemed to worship the ground I walked on. My part of the relationship mostly consisted of me accepting her praise and occasionally manipulating her so that she would play the games that I wanted to play and watch the television shows that I wanted to watch. Our age difference seemed a lot bigger, then. I frequently became annoyed when she wanted to play with my friends, the big girls, and I felt like I was better, simply because I was older.
As we have gotten older, so many aspects of our relationship have changed. Physically, she now stands an inch taller than me, whereas, in previous photos, I stand at least a head over my sister, easily throwing my arm around her.
What once was frequent bickering while I was in middle school has reduced to friendly bantering. We have grown in our love of music together and we frequently have jam sessions together. We share many of the same friends and interests. At the same time, we're not joined at the hip. Jenny has her own pastimes, and I have mine. We say hi to each other at school, but we don't try to get involved in each other's social lives. We complain about school and our parents together. We love imitating each other and people we don't like. Our friends complain about our tag teaming them, every time we hang out with them.
When Jenny has a problem, she doesn't hesitate to ask me for help, and I give advice as only a big sister can. I can count on her to have my back when I face especially difficult challenges, or when I'm in stressful situations. She knows when to offer me the last ice cream bar, and when to refuse me Doritos because she knows I'm trying to eat healthier. She's my helpful critic when I want to buy a new outfit and she knows exactly when I need a break.
I never realized how alike my sister and I were until we went to the same school last year. Several of my friends have overheard "me" talking, only to turn around and discover that it was my sister. I have received so many comments about how my sister and I look exactly the same. Our appearance, as well as our personalities, have certainly changed over the nine years since that photo was taken.
Did my younger self think that my relationship with my sister would be like it is today? Definitely not. But, I also didn't know that we would face the obstacles that we did. I'm glad that sister was my partner for what was the most tumultuous ride of my life so far. She has become my person to confide in, my partner in crime. Looking back at the photograph, I see two peaceful little girls who didn't have a care in the world. I see a simpler time, one where we didn't have to face the problems we do now. I've always been close to my sister, but recent events have caused us to become even closer together. Little has stayed the same since that photo was taken. My family has changed, my relationship with my sister has changed, and I, as a person, have changed. Sometimes, I wish that I could have stayed little. But I know that I have grown as a person because of what I have gone through and that my relationship with my sister wouldn't be as deep as it is now. The relationship with my sister is definitely something I will always treasure. When my sister and I look at the photo, we laugh at how young and innocent we look. We have gone through some rough times together, but I have also shared the happiest moments of my life with Jennifer. That's the way it has always been, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
