Blog 17, Essay 3

There is more to being sisters then blood.


Her laugh resembles mine, the way she speaks is just like me, and we both have the same smile. We share the need to wear our hearts on our sleeves; we speak our minds almost too much, and have blond moments just as often. We are smart, we are daddy’s girls, and share a bond that is unbreakable; we are sisters.
Several pictures a year are taken of the two of us together and they change drastically every time. There were pictures of us when she was little and I was looking at her with disgust, because now she was the baby and I was jealous, and as the years went on they changed again as we got closer. A picture can say so much about a person but it cannot tell you of their past. The picture above is us at my Aunt Beth and Brandy’s baby shower. We were sitting in two wooden chairs at the end of the dance floor watching them open their gifts. She was sitting a couple of inches in front of me because she was taking pictures to make them a scrap book. I remember looking at her, studying the way she moved, laughing because she placed her feet on the ground just like I did, even though she didn’t have the injury that cause me to do it. She held the pencil the same way as me, and when she stood up she wiggled her hips, as I always do because my pants never stay on. She was indeed my sister, there was no questioning it.
Yet I sit and wonder how it is that we are so alike? You see I do not live with my sister; she lives with my father and her mother. She is by definition my half sister, which means she shares half of my genetics. My dad is her dad, so in us we have his DNA; the only difference is that the other half of our makeup is from two different women. There is one difference we have. We also as I mentioned to not live together. When I was younger I lived there every other weekend and during the summers till I was about 14ish. My sister is five years younger than me so she was never going through the same changes I was. I also was a different person whenever I was at my dad’s house. My true colors and personality were only shown when I was here in Jersey. So how do two people who are not around each other very often become so much alike, I have no answer, but in my case we are spitting images of one another in looks and personality.
Blood whether it is half, full, none is not what makes us siblings. It is experiences, talks, hugs, fights, Christmas mornings, secrets, and a bond that no other individual could ever have with us. My sister is my best friend, not because she has to be, but because we chose to be. She called me about two months ago crying, falling apart, her and her boyfriend of two years broke up and she felt as though her world had ended. I talked to her for hours trying to calm her down, but even as I talked and gave advise I knew there was no hope in this helping right now. I knew this because I already went through this, and I knew that she handles situations that same way that I do; her heart was broken and nothing at that moment could make it feel any better. These phone calls continued all month, and every time she cried, I cried too. Not because I missed her boyfriend, but because a part of my, my sister, was hurting. They say that twins feel the others pain because they were connected in the womb, well she is five years younger, comes from a whole other uterus, and I can still feel her pain.
Sitting in my chair watching my sister at the party, realizing all the things that made us so similar, I decided I wanted to take a picture. I reached into my mess of a purse and looked around for my pink camera, which had silver marks all over it because of the chipped paint. I pulled it out, turned it on, and tapped my sister on the shoulder. When she turned around and saw the camera I did not even have to ask. She scooted her chair towards me and leaned up against my shoulder, this was our usual pose. Next she asked what she always does, “Funny or smiling?” ; just another part of our routine. I replied with smile nice, since I had been watching her I wanted to take a picture that shower how much she was like me. I look back at this picture and I am proud. Proud that she is my sister, happy she is a lot like me, and I like to think about how much she has become her own person since it was taken. There are many resemblances and shared characteristics between the two of us, but she is one in a million and adds her own little tweak to what we share. A picture can sometimes be deceiving leading you to believe there is love when there is not; this will never be the case with one of our pictures. Our smiles are always real and nothing about our relationship will ever be fake. I cannot wait to see down the road what our pictures begin to look like. No matter how they change though one thing will always remain the same, we are Sister by blood, and Best Friends by choice.