I’m sure little brothers are great, but I cannot personally attest to that. I grew up with one younger sister, and she is the only sibling I will ever have. She is a lovely human who I have had the privilege of watching grow up. In my 16 years of watching and experiencing life with her in it, I have come up with a few observations that others with little sisters may also have experienced.

You always had someone to play with.

When I was little, I remember that I was usually doing some activity with my sister. It may have been making some imaginary game, playing with our toys or playing outside in the yard. A perk of having a little sister (mine is only a few years younger,) is that she is a built-in playmate. Of course, there were a few cons to this. My sister infamously popped the heads off of my Barbies and switched them around. When I was a little older and in school, she attempted to steal my friends when they came over. All and all, though, I look back fondly at my little shadow.

You learned compassion (or lack thereof).

My sister is a very sensitive person. I am a stone. I cannot tell you how many times I have lacked sympathy for some situation she was crying over that I didn’t think she should be upset about. I don’t comfort; I am like Tom Hanks in "A League of Their Own" saying, “There’s no crying in baseball!” And I got scolded by mom or dad. Repeatedly. Maybe one of these days I will try and sympathize, but I still am not as nice to my sister as I should be at times. I am also terrible at having

Patience.

I’m not going to blame our technological generation. I can simply be a very impatient person sometimes, in many respects. Not only do I dislike waiting, but I also have very little tolerance for something or someone that may be annoying me. As you can probably tell from a few of the above examples, that someone many times in my life has been my sister. We’re just so different and don’t agree on much. I am reserved; she is off-the-wall outgoing. I know I probably annoy her too. I can say that I have learned to be more patient with her, at least since going away to college. I just don’t care to pick fights as much. Like when she posts a picture on Instagram wearing my clothes, I don’t say anything; it isn’t worth fighting over.

Now that I’ve shown you a glimpse into my relationship with my sister through examples of my bad behavior and sarcasm, I’m going to get into the nitty-gritty.

Also, the next two points are going to sound altogether too motherly. But, they are true.

She taught me unconditional love.

As many times as I lash out at my sister, I always know that she loves me and is ready to see me when I come home again. My relationship with my sister has been rocky since she started high school. I try to be another mom because I think she makes questionable decisions, and it has put a strain on our relationship. As many times as I am a jerk and lack sympathy toward her, she cries and apologizes for something she didn’t do, hoping to make things right again. That is something I have only seen from a little sister. In the end, we have a mutual love and respect that cannot be undone by anything we might say to each other that puts a rift in our relationship.

She taught me how to be a role model.

It has taken a long time to learn how to be a person someone looks up to. The real lesson has been how to be a person someone should look up to. Knowing you’re being watched constantly, and that a smaller person is seeing exactly how you act in every situation, can be a lot of pressure. It can be even harder when you mess up and she makes the same mistakes later on. It has happened to me many times. It is hard to just let her live and learn and not put in my two cents about it.

I know that wherever we go, we will always be sisters, and will be here for each other when needed.

We are tied by birth and family and cannot escape each other! We grew up together and got to see each other in all our ugly forms and one day, we will both be real, proper adult people. It’ll be fun to hang out and do adult things. But we’ll also have to be there for each other through some of life’s toughest moments. I am so lucky to have a sister; I can’t imagine being an only child. And being an older sister has shaped me into the person I am today. I’m also really glad I got to leave the house first because I wouldn’t want to watch her leave.

All of this has been far too cheesy for me to say out loud and on a public platform. But alas, it's going to be published soon. My sister doesn’t have Facebook and hopefully neither of my parents show her this article. I am glad I’ve gotten it out there, though.