To be a Sister

I may change my mind often, but one thing is for certain, without a doubt: I have the two greatest brothers in the world! I just have to write about this, because this morning I did something I rarely do: I sent a forward. But it was worthwhile (ahem, I know everyone thinks their forwards are important!); it was a link on www.one.org (the ONE campaign to make poverty history) to send a letter to your senator asking her/him not to slash funding for Africa. For obvious reasons, this is an issue close to my heart, but I sent the link to my brothers, as they visited me when I studied in Zimbabwe, and Josh worked there for several months just over a year ago. And I just got home from class after, ironically, giving an oral presentation on Zimbabwe, to find emails from both Jon and Josh in response to my forward. Jon was sending his AP History class down to the computer lab to send the letter and participate in activism. And Josh sent his letter and proceeded to buy 10 wristbands to support the cause! I mean, really, I just can't get over how fantastic it is to be their sister!

Truly, it doesn't matter what we do or who we're with, when Jon, Josh, and I are together, we're always having a great time. Even as kids, we didn't really fight that much. Okay, sometimes I manipulated them into confessions of who used my toothpaste by promising not to yell, and after the guilty twin would step forward, I would, of course, yell. And yes, anybody who knows me really really well knows that I had "Jon days" and "Josh days" (this is NOT something I'm proud of....as I've only admited my terrible pitting of one twin against the other to a few people!). But really, for the most part, we always had fun together--whether building forts, playing "office" while dad worked at Sargento on Saturdays, or turning all the lights off in the house and playing some variation of hide-and-seek/kick the can (which was really "run into the living room pile of pillows before getting caught!"...renting Nintendo on special Saturday nights (because we weren't allowed to have Nintendo, like we weren't allowed to watch the Simpsons, Married with Children, or MTV) (VH-1 was okay when they played country music). We had some minor struggles--having family meetings and complaining about toilet seats left up, Jon always wanting a dog that was "just his!", Josh using the pink tupperware bowl when I thought, because he was a boy, that he should use the green one (even though I used the green one cuz it was my favorite), and arguing over who had to be on dog poop patrol. And now that we've forged our own paths (but still talk about the vacation home our three families will eventually share), I love the extent to which we're still close.

I have two amazing brothers who can pull off pastels and still climb mountains, who share their cigars with me and will humor me in post-dinner wrestling matches (which have been going on for a solid 20 years now...but the tables turned when they were 12 years old and suddenly surpassed me in size!). They are simply the best.