From diapers to move-in day, your little sibling has been by your side through it all. You were each others' first motivator, first friend, and first enemy but through the years you've made a bond that you know distance will never break.
That doesn't mean it won't try. It can be hard moving away from one of the only people who truly understands everything about you, someone who has been with you every step of the way and still loves you all the same. You're no longer just a room away when you need to run over and show your sister that hilarious new Vine. You can no longer just walk into your brother's room and ask him to play basketball with you. And you definitely don't have anyone who you know will always say "yes" to a late night road trip to Wendy's.
That's a tough transition in college, when your live-in best friend keeps on living without you. Fortunately, just at the times when it begins to get unbearable, a break will come along and reuniting is all the more sweet.
Unfortunately, there are other times where the distance feels too much to handle.
1. No one else has exactly the same sense of humor.
You've grown up around the same experiences, people, and ideas so naturally you have the same sense of humor. You want to laugh until you cry over that new viral video with someone and even though your college friends are amused, they just don't get it like your sibling would.
There is no one else who without fail laughs at all your jokes or can always make you laugh, no matter how stupid the joke. Laughter is the best medicine through most of the college stress, and sometimes that's hard to find when your audience doesn't get your sense of humor.
2. No one else truly understands just how frustrating your parents can be.
When you're on the phone with your mom and she calls her text messages "emails", you look around the room for someone else who will appreciate her slip as much as you did. But no one else understands what you hear from her on a weekly basis. Except your sibling, who hears the exact same things every single day.
Need to commiserate about an unreasonable rule or curfew? Only the ones who have experienced exactly the same can know just how you feel. Only a sister can understand the embarrassment of your dad dropping you off at a friend's house and only a brother can mimic just right the way your mom tries to "whip" and "nae nae" in the car.
The only person who will always be there to roll your eyes with over the "no phones at dinner" rule will be the one who has lived with it all their life too.
3.) You both have conflicting social lives now.
In high school, you always knew where each other was. Your schedules lined up and so did your free time, so there was plenty of time in the day to gossip or catch up.
Now, you both have no idea what meetings each other are at, when practice ends, or who is out with friends. When you want to FaceTime and you find out tonight is impossible because your only free time is during their piano lessons, it's tough not to remember when you used to have all night.
4.) You can only see those great memories they're making through pictures and social media.
Senior year, first dates, dances, and day trips; you're missing it all because you're on campus and they're out growing up. You remember when you had those same experiences and want to talk to your sibling about it, reminisce, and give advice. But prom will go on without you.
It's hard to know that you're a bystander to such important events you'd love to be a part of, although there's always the pictures that mom and grandma send over later.
Unfortunately the photos with a thumb covering half your sister's face don't exactly do the event justice.
5.) They're the only person who you know is in it for the long haul, yet they are so far away.
Friends come and go but family is forever, and when no one else is there for you, your sibling always is. You know that anything they do, you will forgive and anything you do, they will forget. They've seen you at your worst and still love you just the same; not because they have to but because they want to. They know everything about you as a person from the awkward middle school years to the moody teenage ones and still think you are perfect.
There aren't many others who you can say this about, and it's so hard to be separated from this knowledge.
~Yeah, it's really hard to be away from your best friend, your other half, but college is a time of adjustment and balance. Finding new friends while keeping the old can be tricky, but worth it in the end. Your love for your sibling will triumph over any troubles you have with leaving them behind, because you know that they'll always be only a phone call away.
In the end, they say absence makes the heart grow fonder.
In all actuality, it just makes it easier to forget how annoying living with your little sibling could be.
