Dear Brother,

I’ll try to keep myself from getting sappy, but I make no promises.

There’s a lot I have to thank you for, so I figured, why not try and put it into words? Let’s be real, if I told you all of this in person, you would probably pin me down and fart on me, or something along those lines.

Thanks for being my first best friend. I could always count on you to play with me. Being a year older than you, I thought of you as my big Barbie doll, and I thought you would want to do everything with me. I soon realized that you didn’t, but thanks always playing with me anyways.

Whether it was playing “How long can we keep the balloon in the air” or attempting to play kick ball in the front yard (thank god we didn’t break any windows, or mom and dad would have killed us), I could always count on you. Thanks for always letting me watch Scooby Doo when you were going through your Barney phase; I guess that’s the perk of being the older sibling.

Thanks for all of my favorite childhood memories. Thanks for teaching me how to catch frogs in our pond before I realized how gross they actually are. Thanks for always wanting to go fishing with me, and always taking the fish off the hook, because they were slimy and gross. Thanks for racing around in our battery-powered cars with me and seeing how many of our friends we could pile into my pink Barbie corvette. Or all of the times when we would watch School of Rock over and over until we memorized all of the words to all of the songs. Or for making a rotten egg sling shot in Iowa, even though you shot one at me and I smelled like s**t for the rest of the day. Thanks for always wanting to kick the soccer ball around with me, if it was for only ten minutes or for an hour.

Thanks for being my thunder buddy and sleeping on my floor whenever the storms were bad and we both couldn’t sleep. Thanks helping me try to lose my fear of the dark in the times when you would turn off the light and close the door on me. Yeah, that’s still my biggest fear.

Thanks for all the memories we made in high school. Whether it was me helping you around on your first day of freshman year and teaching you how to survive Grayslake North High School, or when we would pass each other in the hall and shove each other at a locker. Oh, and thanks for never shoving me into a locker. Or when we were in the same gym class and you would “accidentally” spike the volleyball at my head. Thanks for always supporting me through my soccer journey and always being proud of me at the end of my games. Or when I was surprisingly good at powder puff football and you were proud that I was your sister.

Memories aside, you’ve taught me a lot of lessons, too.

Thanks for teaching me to not care what others think. You should be doing you, and that’s all that matter.

Thanks for teaching me that growing up is supposed to be fun. There’s a time and place to be serious, and that certainly isn’t every day.

Thanks for teaching me to have a backbone and not letting anyone walk all over me.

Thanks for always beating me up, you taught me that I’m stronger than I think I am.

Thanks for teaching me that guys are stupid, so I should choose wisely.

Thanks for always taking my side whenever mom and dad try to argue with me.

Thanks for making sure I always have a smile on my face.

I can’t imagine having a sister instead of you. I mean, being able to share cute outfits sounds cool, but I would much rather go through your closet and steal your comfy t-shirts and sweatpants when you’re not home to catch me. Well, I guess you’ve caught me now.

You’ve made growing up such an adventure, and I can’t express how blessed I am to have you in my life.

Love,

Your Sister