Me and my sister, before it all went to Hell.
You see, my sister, whom I love very much, is also my nemesis. She is my nemesister, if you will. I am older than her by 2 1/2 years, and ahead of her by one year in school. We are friends, we are sisters, and we HATED each other when we were growing up. Now, I hear you asking, "Why did you hate such a talented, smart, wonderful kid like Stephanie?" Do you really want to know why? We hated each other because we were always competing. Not only were we always competing, but she always won! In my eyes, that was just not right. I was older. I was tougher. But, somehow, she was smarter and just plain better at everything.
This wasn't like a friendly competition. Oh, no. This was a no holds-barred, balls out, two will enter and only one will leave type of competition.
My favorite (translation: most mortifying) experience happened when she went to some math class in High School and her teacher (who had been my teacher the year before) told her that he didn't think that she belonged in that class, that it was too hard for her...because he thought she was me! It turns out that he would have been right. I can see that now. I laughed at the time but it wasn't that real laugh. Now I laugh about it for real...uh-huh... sure I do.
No, really, I do. You know why? A few years ago, I figured out that my sister wasn't the root of all evil. She wasn't even the root of a little bit of it. She was just a cute kid who worked a whole lot harder than I did on most things. She was always studying. She was always practicing. She was always working. I was not. I made a choice in school to do fine but not to really push myself because, honestly, my social life was much more important to me than anything else. It's just one of many lessons I wish I could go back and slap my stupid self silly in high school. I would say "Look, stupid, you have chosen to go out, have a lot of fun, goof off and do your best in school-as long as it doesn't interfere with your social life. That's okay. It's going to work out just fine for you. But don't get mad at your sister because she is willing to work harder. Be proud of her."
Now I am. I also have two children. Two little daughters who are 3 1/2 years apart. I see the seeds of sibling rivalry starting to germinate. I know that it's going to raise it's ugly head soon, and I hope that we can all make it without too many cage match type fights. Until then, I'll just prepare the cage, set admission prices, and get ready to RUMBLE!
Love you, Steph. And, since you love clowns so much, this one is for you.
I'm sorry I was such a bastard to you for so many years, but at least we can laugh about it. Now, look at those clown faces again.
No comments:
Post a Comment