My family has always been very unconventional. I was raised, for the most part, as an only child. My only biological sibling is seven years older than me and spent a lot of time living in a different town with her mother. Because of this, I had a split mentality about my identity as a child. I never knew what to say when people asked because I could relate to both roles.

It was always a very confusing part of my life.

However, not as confusing as explaining my little sister. You see, when I was five years old my sister came home and told me that her mom had had another baby. Explaining this to a five-year-old can be pretty tricky. When your sister has another sister, but she’s not related to you it gets complicated. But for me it was easy. This tiny little creature was my sister.

No, we don’t share any parents, but she’s still my little sister. That’s just how it’s always been.

We didn’t grow up together and we didn’t always get along. In fact, there were times when we couldn’t stand each other simply because of our one shared human – our sister. When she was with me, she wasn’t with her. When she was with her, she wasn’t with me. Obviously, this was an obstacle. But we grew up and we learned to share and as we’ve gotten older we’ve grown closer.

Explaining my little sister to people gets complicated, yes. But I would do it every day for the rest of my life because this tiny human that came into my life in such an unconventional way 19 years ago is one of the most important people in my life. Families aren’t always simple, and they don’t always make sense. Sometimes it’s true that you can’t choose your family, but I have proof that you can. I could’ve chosen to forget about her and not accept her as a part of my life, but I didn’t.

I choose this girl every day.

There are always going to be people who say she’s not related to me and that I don’t actually have a little sister, but they’re wrong and they’ll always be wrong. She’s mine and no one can tell me any different.