Being blessed with a sister is like being blessed with a built-in best friend. You have someone that you can share everything with. From secrets to clothes and nail polish, your sister is someone that you can confide in and someone who will always be there for you. My sister happens to be 11 years older than me and at times when I was younger, she was often mistaken for being my mom. She used to take me and my brother out shopping and in the summers when we weren’t in school, she would read to us and take us rollerblading, no matter how bad of a decision we knew it would be. Growing up, she was kind of like a second mom in the sense that she was still like a moral compass trying to point me in the right direction. Like my mom, my sister just wanted what was best for me. She was like my hero and I wanted to be just like her. When she was in high school, I’d dress up in a dress just like her whenever she had a school dance. She was a cheerleader and I knew that I wanted to be one too. When I got to high school, my sister was the one that taught me the school loyalty song for cheer tryouts in the living room of our house because it hadn’t changed since she went there. I thought she was so cool studying fashion in college and wearing high heels when she went out with her friends on the weekends. I was honored to have the job of warming up her coffee for her in the microwave for 30 seconds and whenever I tell her this, she responds with, "yeah you used to think I was cool."

I still do think my sister is cool, but in a different way. I am at the age now that she was when I used to sit in her room and watch her get ready to go out. I have no idea how she put up with me, when all I wanted was for her to paint my nails or straighten my hair. She had her own way of talking, which I always tried to copy. It was a sad but happy day for me when she got married because I knew she’d be moving out of my house and into her own with her husband. When she had children, I showed off baby pictures to anyone that would pay attention. My sister is still cool because against all odds. She graduated college, held a job, and started a family of her own. She can make me laugh and we have the best time hanging out together whether we're playing with her kids or going to lunch at the mall. I am so proud of my sister because of what an amazing mom she is and the amazing person she is. I still look up to her and hope that I can be like her.

I am so lucky to have grown up with a cool older sister who has always been there for me. When I called her crying my freshman year of college because I needed someone to talk to, when I needed a place to go after my first high school heartbreak, and when I need someone to vent to, she has always been the one I can rely on. She is someone who was always patient with me even when she knew I was wrong. Now that I am older, I can appreciate all that she did for me. I can only hope to do the same for her in the future. To those who do not have an older sister or a sister at all, I can only wish that you find someone in your life who will love you unconditionally like my older sister has done for me.