Super Extraterrestrial Sisters

This is my little sister, Brittany.  She's also my best friend--turns out my parents were right about that even back when we were young and swearing we'd never talk to each other AGAIN FOR REAL THIS TIME on a weekly basis.  She recently started a blog about her journey toward a healthier, more balanced lifestyle over at There and Back Again.

When I was approximately 5-years-old my sister told me I was a boy from Jupiter.

That may, in fact, be one of the defining moments of my life.

I in no way, shape, or form think that I am a boy. Nor do I think I'm from Jupiter. But... it's the fact that I trusted her SO MUCH that she had me totally convinced that I was a boy. And from Jupiter. I mean... wow. 5 year olds aren't dumb. I have encountered many of them, and I am always shocked at how much they are like adults. Except tiny.

I remember running to my mother and sobbing. We had a rule in my house. No tattle telling unless there was blood. But, from what I can remember, this was outside of the rulebook. I HAD to make sure I was not a boy from Jupiter. Of course, my mother reassured me that she remembered my exit from her womb and that nothing Mulder or Scully would have been interested in happened during her pregnancy or my birth.

She and I have always had a struggle of the wills (my sister... not my mother). Be it my fake crying her into playing Barbies with me, or beating her into submission with a baton. Or maybe sitting on her until she allowed me to play what I wanted to play on the computer. Or her... well... Her methods were always much more elusive and psychological. Winding me up into a hyper-active state so that I got into trouble for being too loud. Or scaring me so much that I screamed terrifying blood curdling screams and got in trouble... well... you can imagine that we were a fair match for one another.

And yet... the older we get... the more I realize that I couldn't have asked for a better human to grow up with. We were perfect rivals, yet we were also a perfect match. I was the outgoing, friendly loud one, and she was the intelligent, quiet, thoughtful one. But... I often wonder. If I didn't have her to drive me in my life, what would I be like? See, when she told me I was a boy from Jupiter, I believed her. No doubt. Pure belief. And to this day, when I don't know what to do with myself, I don't call my mom (although I love her very much and totally trust her), I call my sister. Opposites attract. She drives me. And I can only hope that I drive her.

Case in point: I was never a runner. Well, I retract that. As I child, I ran EVERYWHERE. I never walked. But the older I got, that faded. And by the time I reached adulthood, running was the worst possible thing I could imagine doing. Now I can run 4 miles and am training for more.  I'm not bragging on myself (ok, maybe a little), but without my sister, I would never have run a lick. Seriously... running for 3 minutes was pure torture when I first started "training". She was the one who ran a 10K this year... and we may potentially run a half marathon together in February... something that I would have NEVER considered a year ago. Heck, 5 months ago. Without her... I wouldn't have realized that potential in myself.

My grades in school were only as good as they were because I wanted to prove that I was just as smart as my super smart sister who didn't HAVE to prove that she was smart. I've always had to prove that I was just as good as she was. Because, y'all, my sister is awesome.

This year we went to Disney World as a family... and I had this sudden realization. We aren't kids any more. I'm 26. She's 28. We are adults (I have no idea why it took me until the age of 26 to realize this). And on this family vacation... we didn't fight... not at all. And I started to wonder if maybe she had been replaced with my real sister from Jupiter.

I don't know... maybe every little sister feels that way about her big sister... but... I really feel like we have something special. I have never been so traumatized, loved, or tortured by such a person as my sister Angela.

Also... without her... I may never have appreciated the X-Files. All the seasons are available on Netflix. And y'all... Tooms is just as scary as I remember him being when I was 8 years old.

Comments

[Lynn]

Aww! I wish my brother would say such nice things about me :-) So sweet.

[Molly]

What a sweet post! It sounds like you guys have quite a relationship and the fact that you recognize it, appreciate it and are enjoying every moment of it, is icing on the cake.

I've never watched X-Files, but I'm a Netflix junkie. Guess what's about to be added to my queue?

[Steph.]

Awww! This is awesome. My sister is 8 years younger than me, so we're just getting to where we're both on the same page and I feel the same way about her.

[Dana K]

There's a 5 year difference between my older sister & me. She had me convinced that I was adopted & actually Oscar the Grouch's kid. yeah.

X-files awesome. I wish I had only been 8 when I watched it. ;-)

[Kate P]

X-Files was always scary to me, too, Brittany. BTW I think I'd be more O.K. with being from Jupiter than being a boy!

Great observations. I used to think my younger sister and I were total opposites, but now that we're grown-ups (which is still weird to think about, as you said!) we are finding a lot more common ground we didn't know we had.

[Becky]

Angela always has nothing but nice things to say about you. What a great friendship to have with your sis. Good luck with the running!