Guest Post: Sisterhood

Dear Readers of Simplicity and Reality,

I feel like a formal introduction is needed before I begin. I’m Sheila, Mandy’s older sister. I live in Boise, Idaho where I teach junior high kids and write (occasionally) on my own blog. 

Mandy asked me to write a “guest post” for her blog on sisterhood and what it means to me. To be honest, when she first asked me to write this post, I wasn’t really sure what to say. I mean, yes sisterhood is a wonderful gift but what is there to write about? 

So after months of procrastination, I finally forced myself to sit down and reflect. Here are my thoughts on what sisterhood means to me.

1. My sister’s friendship is constant.

No matter how much of the raw me my sister sees…

No matter the opinions we agree with or disagree with…

No matter the thousands of miles apart or the different seasons of life we are in…

No matter the hurt feelings, the unspoken competition, the awkward family dinners…

No matter what…

We are sisters. We are friends. We are constant.

2. We testify to the growth and change in each other from childhood to adulthood. 

My sister and I were very different growing up. She was rather boy(ish) –playing soccer, getting in the mud, running around with my brother. As she ran around in her cut off T-shirts, boy shorts, and way too short of a haircut, I wanted so badly to pierce her ears. I thought that would at least distinguish her as a girl. She was fearless and she didn’t care about what others thought of her. Me, on the other hand, I was bratty, spoiled, bossy, and a know-it-all. I was the older sister that always got her way and that had to be the best at everything. I cared way too much of what others thought of me. Needless to say, Mandy and I were as opposite as we could get and that clashed between us for years. We were not friends. We could barely carry out a normal conversation. It wasn’t until Mandy moved away to college that we met each other again. We began to get to know the new us. We set aside of what we knew about the old sister and we began a process of meeting the new sister. Today we both can look back at who we were 20 years ago and we can share the ways in which we’ve seen each other grow and change and become new people. It will be interesting in another 20 years to see how we have changed again, but just as sisters do, we will be there (God willing) to say, “Hey, remember when you used to be like that?! Gosh how you have changed.”

3. We fart together and we try each other’s hobbies.

Time with my sister is very special probably because it is rare. We see each other maybe once or twice a year, but every time we are together it is like the realest part of me comes to life. Farts, jokes, sarcasm, silly girl laughs; all the things that we hide in adult friendships come flowing out. We live together. We try each other’s hobbies and we make memories together. My “sister friendship” brings out the realest of me.

4. We push each other to the next perspective.

As we each grow and change, we learn new things. We share those things we learn and hopefully, we encourage each other to see a different perspective. We are still very different people with different personalities and different outlooks, but I know that as we both have walked through life and walked with each other through life, we have learned to see life from each other’s perspectives and that has changed the way I see life.

Well, I guess I had more to say about sisterhood than I thought. 

To sum things up, I guess I would encourage you in one way. It wasn’t until recently where I truly started to appreciate this sisterhood that I have. I have taken my friendship for granted; not realizing how fortunate I am. So today I encourage you, go say thank you to the sister or brother you have…

Go reconnect if you have drifted apart…

Or go say thank you to the one friend you can truly live life REAL with

Because isn’t that what life is all about?