If life is long enough

Depending on birth order, number of years in between and other various variables, siblings can be very diverse creatures.

My sister and I are two years apart. I am the oldest of four. She is the second oldest. We have two younger brothers, but the total span between our youngest brother and me is only five years.

I walked on my tiptoes for several years because I wanted to be a ballerina and was hoping that would help me become one. My sister, on the other hand, taught herself to walk pigeon-toed because her friend was pigeon-toed and people worried about that.

I tried to impress my teachers and parents by being the perfect student. My sister made crazy mistakes because people laughed. (At least I hope that was why.)

I think a lot of rules are personally pointless, but I am pretty much a rule follower. My sister thinks rules are Gospel, but she seldom pays much attention to them if they are inconvenient.

When I was trying to get attention, I played musical instruments, or wrote poetry. When my sister wanted attention she got asthma. Both worked, but we almost moved to Arizona for my sister's asthma until she wanted a cat. Once she got the cat there was no asthma for over two years, because that meant the cat would go..

Soon we had those inevitable labels that families give children. I was "the brain." She was the "social butterfly." Like many children we dutifully tried to keep up the image.

And to this day we are pretty much the same people we always have been. I have tried to be more social and now that we are both older I tend to be just that because I live in a larger city and belong to a club of like minded women. She got a nursing degree and still works past retirement age because that is what she has done all her life.

I still turn to writing things  (like this blog) when I want attention and she still tends to get sick, or make goofy errors (like severing the cord of her electric hedge trimmer over and over while using it) but we are both still growing so who knows how this will end if we live long enough.