Remember, Remember the 5th of November

So I have this big sister.
She born on this day 25 years ago.

She's pretty awesome.

So, she's almost exactly 2 years older than me, the perfect distance apart for her to try everything first and for me to follow close behind.

She taught me how to read when I was three, because she had already tested the waters.
She played the slightly harder part on our piano duets, because she started first.
She consistently found the best books and music.
She led the way on most bike trips to the library and candy store.
She shared her paper route with me.

She turned 16 before I did (funny how that works) and we would go on road trips to see her friends in Grand Rapids who she so generously shared with me. I remember one trip where we got energy drinks (and I counted how many stars there are on Rockstar Energy Drinks... no, I do not remember), and we saw a bus trailing a parachuting army man behind it, a la Napoleon Dynamite. Nice.

Speaking of sharing, once we had boyfriends with the same name. Don't worry, they were different people.
Sheesh.

Since we worked at the same Farm Market for most of high school, we had to mix things up. We worked in different departments and I remember a day or a week when we wrote cheesy song lyrics on order pads and posted them for the other. I still have one that says "Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime. Sister, that's all I ask of you." Yes please.

Stories like these... I could go on forever. Playing Little Women with the neighbors, the time she made me drink Orange Juice and Milk mixed together, visits to her dorm room in college... it's a long list.

Still, even without the stories, it's important to note how important she is. She is a huge part of the reason I love learning, she taught me how to read, which is more or less English related. She took a chance and moved out of the country after college and is not attending a ridiculously prestigious Law School. She is encouraging and positive and intelligent, and is a humungous part of who I am today.

Sorry, it's not all about me. It's about her, and how incredibly thankful I am that God in all his wisdom put her and I in the same family. I'm sad to miss this birthday, but I know there'll be many more. Besides, despite the distance, we'll always be sisters, right?

Sister... Happy Birthday. I love you more than words.