Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! Today is going to be a special post. Sunday, August 1 was Sisters Day, so today is going to be a special post.
This post is for my fantastic sister. I did two posts similar to this months ago. I did one for Mother's Day and Father's Day.
Those are two of the biggest annual days, but there is another that my sister and I have lightly celebrated for about six years (when we remember, of course). That day is none other than Sisters Day.
We don't normally give each other gifts on Sisters Day, but this year I've decided to give her a gift, and what better gift is there than writing a post talking about how spectacular she is?
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| King, Alexandria. Musings of an Arthritic Artist. 2021. |
As a child, I never envisioned I would be as close with my sister as I am now, especially due to our age gap. I grew up wanting to be exactly like her (like most younger siblings do), and I knew that I felt decently close to her, but I never knew if she felt the same way.
She has always been there for me, even as annoying as she may be sometimes. When I couldn't walk as a child, she would give me piggyback rides, so much that her back probably was very sore after.
We used to fight a lot. Over stupid things.
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To be honest, I was a horrible younger sister when I was a child. In complete honesty, I was pretty abusive, even though it's normal for a child to sometimes start hitting people at a certain age. I would smack her with a set of golf clubs I had.
They were taken away once so I couldn't hit her again and put on top of our old fridge. This didn't faze me at the time. I climbed onto the kitchen counter when no one was around, and pulled down my golf clubs.
I continued smacking my sister with them, until my parents took them away a second time and put them where I couldn't reach them. I haven't seen them since; I think they're in my old garage.
I was a cruel sister. I got jealous easily (like a lot of kids do), and was honestly quite a brat. I'm not surprised that my sister would get so annoyed with me and try to avoid me, and I don't blame her.
Even when I was 9, I was a bit of a jerk, but that story is a bit too personal to share. Let's just say I butchered a song by one of her favorite bands (Matchbox Twenty) where I put my own cruel lyrics to it and tormented her at night by singing it to her. I was a very cruel child, yet she still loved and put up with me. I'll never fully understand why.
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My sister and I weren't very close growing up. We loved each other, and I loved watching my sister compete in marching band and winterguard, but I still felt distant from her. She's eight years, ten months older than me, which means that when I was 6, my sister was a sophomore in high school. About a week after my 9th birthday, she graduated. Just before I turned 13, she was already graduating from college and had already earned her Bachelor's degree.
She was already so far ahead in her life, while it seemed as if I was barely beginning mine. I remember being a child and dreading the day she'd move away. I knew it had to be soon. These are thoughts I was having at around 8 years old. I didn't want my sister to leave when I barely knew her.
The only thing that I would've been excited for had she moved away was that I wanted her room. As a child, I had already laid claim to it. I had told her that when she moved out, I wanted her room. I told my mother that as well.
After I began fearing that my sister would move away and leave me at around 8, I tried to make a deal with her. I made her promise to not move out until I turned 18. She agreed.
At the time, I was happy. I was satisfied. I knew she wouldn't leave, so I didn't think much of it. A few years later, she brought it up, telling my mom that she couldn't move away until I was 18 because she made me a promise.
To be honest, I was shocked. When the years began to pass by, I remembered that deal but I doubted she would keep her word. I had resigned myself to the fact that she had agreed with me at the time just to make me stop whining. I thought she just wanted me to shut up and let her work. She didn't.
I didn't expect her to keep her word.
My 18th birthday occurred two months ago. My sister is still here. She has a job and she's pretty busy, but she's here. She kept her promise. And to that I say, "There, Sammie. I'm 18. You can move out now 😁."
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Growing up, I bashed pretty much everything my sister liked. She loved dinosaurs, I hated dinosaurs. She loved sharks, I hated sharks. She loved science fiction movies, I hated science fiction movies. She loved superheroes, I hated superheroes.
Then, 2016-2017 came. Since my sister didn't know what she wanted to do for Graduate school, my mom gave her a gap year. She gave me a gap year the same year, telling me and my sister that she wanted us to spend time together that year.
I started sleeping in her room. That year was a perpetual sleepover. It got annoying (mostly because it was her room, so I had little freedom on what possessions I could have in there), but it was fun.
She wanted to start watching the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) movies. She invited me to watch Iron Man, and I complained but begrudgingly did so. After that, whenever she asked me if I wanted to watch Iron Man 2, I always said no.
I think a few weeks to a month had passed by before I asked her if we could watch it. If I remember properly, I was curious about it and just wanted to watch a movie with my sister, even if it had to be a superhero movie.
It was fun. From that moment on, we began binging the MCU. We went in timeline order, even watching Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D episodes before certain movies.
We binged it until we caught up. At the time we started, the MCU only went up to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2; Spider-Man Homecoming hadn't been released yet.
I loved it. I fell in love with Marvel movies and even superhero movies as a whole. My sister got to give me an "I told you so" look because when we started, she said I'd enjoy it and that it'd be fun. At the time, I didn't believe her. She was right.
I don't think I would be as invested in the MCU and even the DCEU (DC Extended Universe) if my sister and I hadn't watched them. They are genuinely good movies, but I now have that emotional connection.
I truly believe that the reason we are so close now is because I opened myself up to watching the movies she loved (she also forced me into it). I truly believe it's Marvel's fault the two of us are so close now, because otherwise, we did things we always did.
We played board games, video games (which I lost; I always lost back then), and card games. The one thing I hadn't done was watched a lot of the movies she liked willingly. I had seen the Tobey Maguire Spiderman movies.
I had seen some of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D (the first season) because my sister had checked out season one from the library a couple years before. The only difference was that whenever she asked me if I wanted to watch the movies she liked, I'd say no, while she'd repeatedly watch the movies I liked, usually with no complaint.
We bonded over those movies, and all the other activities we did. The two of us were older and more mature, so we were able to connect and relate more. It definitely wasn't easy gaining our relationship (we argued a lot), but I think all our hard work has paid off.
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If you asked me as a child who my best friend was, I'd say my sister, for two reasons. One, I'd say that it's because I don't have any other friends, and two, because I want to be just like her.
Now, if you asked me the same question, the answer would be the same, but the reasoning would be different. I'd say that my sister is my best friend because she's usually the first person I go to for certain things. She's my best friend because she's my sister, and she's a pretty good one at that.
We definitely have a better relationship than we used to. We don't argue as much because I've learned to just deal with her. She sometimes says the most random things, solely to make me laugh. She's honestly quite bizarre, but it keeps me from being too serious. She's annoying and she can be mean, but I wouldn't trade her for the world.
I know my sister probably isn't reading this when it's published, or even when it's sent to her email. She'll be too busy making money by reading and writing about comics, but I'll give a message to her anyway because she's bound to read it eventually, even if it takes her three months. Or six.
Thank you, Sammie. Thank you for making me a promise even though I was a brat. Thank you for those piggyback rides and late-night pep talks. Thank you for the road trip shenanigans and laughs, but most of all, thank you for being my sister. I love you! Happy Sisters' Day!
Absolutely beautiful...
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