I’m from a big family so I’ve had to share a school with all of my siblings at some point in my life. My freshman year of high school my big sister Katelin was a senior. When I was a junior, my little brother Jonathan was a freshman. I’ve been both the younger and older sister at this school.
When I was a freshman, it was comforting to know that my big sister was looking out for me. I was very scared as a freshman, and it helped to know that I could talk to Katelin at lunch or see her in the hallway. Every day on the way home, we would talk about how our days were, and as a result, we got really close to each other.
But as a true little sister I also had a little fun too; I would go out of my way to say ‘Hi’ to Katelin in the halls or interrupt a conversation she was having with a friend. Sometimes I tried a little too hard to embarrass her, and I just ended up embarrassing myself.
After Katelin graduated, I had a year to myself before Jonathan became a freshman. My sophomore year I was all alone at school. I expected to love it but for me it was a bit lonely. I like to see my family in the halls. I like to talk to them about the fire drill or absence of big cookies on a particular Friday.
Jonathan is very different than me which is why he doesn’t go out of his way to embarrass me like I did to Katelin. He just embarrasses me on accident. He’s a bit clumsy which is why I am constantly hearing stories of how he bumped into someone or spilled someone’s soda.
He also actively ignores me. He likes to pretend that I’m not in “his” school. On the first day of school, he saw me in the hallway and the next day he completely changed his route so he wouldn’t have to see me in the halls every day and be forced to acknowledge my existence. Once I tried to give him a hug in the hallway, and he thought he was going to die!
Having experienced being the younger one, the only one, and the older one, I can speak with experience. I like sharing a school with my family.