My best friend is my twin sister, Jacqueline. We have always been together, and always have had each other’s backs. I think it was together that we discovered who we wanted to be when we grew up, me a journalist and her becoming a lawyer. We used to play games like us being news anchors or being judges. While we did go to separate colleges for some time apart, she still will always be the one who makes me a better person, and here are the reasons why.

• She calls me on my crap. I know I can be handful sometimes, and apparently I’m a diva or something. I don’t know if it’s a middle-child thing, but my family kind of lets me get away with a lot. Stuff my older sister and younger brother could not really get away with. My sister is baffled by this, and she always asks, “Why do you humor her?” I mean, I’m not complaining, but sure. I know that I won’t get that same treatment from her, and she won’t let me off the hook for things. Annoying, but I love it and her regardless. She makes sure I’m not too big for my britches (yes, I said it). She isn’t going to do things for me. She makes me more independent.
• She’s the Yin to my Yang. Corny, I know, but it’s true. We’re twins, so we’re kind of both sides of one coin. I like to think of us as being each side of the brain. She’s the left brain, logical and collected, while I’m the right brain, emotional and creative. We complement each other, and sometimes, she’ll be the voice of reason when I’m about to make a decision based on my emotions rather than my brain. Or vice versa, when she’s being too stuffy, I’ll coax her into doing something fun (read bad).
• She helps me think clearly. I mentioned it before, but she is just so logical. It gets on my nerves because she doesn’t react like I want her to sometimes. You ever call your girlfriend up about something that went down and yeah, you know you were wrong, but that isn’t the point? You were wronged, and the person you told should feel the exact same way. Well, that’s not how our relationship works. She will ask me what I did, and then I have to tell her what really happened, and then she will rationally (the nerve) explain to me that I shouldn’t be upset. I hate it, like let me be mad, sheesh. But darn it, that logical part is exactly what I need. She brings me back down to earth. It would do us no good if we were both emotional messes and then we would just get into a whole lot of issues. So I commend her for that.
• She loves me for me, nerdy side and all. I used to be really ashamed of the fact that I liked comic books and anime (some, please don’t ask if I have seen this really obscure anime because I haven’t. I’m talking about Sailor Moon guys), and cartoons about comic book characters. I am really into that stuff and I enjoyed talking about it with my dad. But then she found out what I watched (through sheer nosiness by the way), and I am glad she did. It’s now something else I can share with her. She might not totally understand it, but she doesn’t judge me for it. Being able to share it with her was my biggest fear because of how she might have reacted. But now that she knows, I feel so much better. I can nerd out in front of her without hesitation and I feel reassured. It’s me and there’s nothing to be ashamed about.

Thank you so much Jackie, for being you. You are my sister, my best friend, and closest confidant. It’s cliché, but you know me better than I know myself. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.