Sisters

If you would have told me, five years ago, that I'd be spending days on end with only my sisters, I would have either rolled my eyes or laughed in your face.

I'm the oldest of three, each of us separated by about three years. While that distance in age is not really all that large, eventually it was just enough to keep us from completely getting along and truly being "friends" (or even just cordial in some instances). Up until becoming teenagers, we really didn't have any problems. We peacefully shared a single bedroom for many years, coexisted in a house with only one bathroom, wore each others clothes and shoes, had "sleepovers" together, and enjoyed many other sisterly things ... But once Middle Sister hit about sixteen (making me nineteen), the fireworks began to fly!

I guess I'd have to step back, here, and explain that I was definitely a major "goody-two-shoes." As the oldest, I did everything I had or was expected to do ... I set the example. I obeyed rules and curfews without question and basically kept order in the house by calling out my sisters if they were doing (or had done) anything wrong. This, obviously, built up some animosity ... Especially between Middle Sister and myself, and really came to a head once she had become established in high school and I had gone away to college. We just didn't get along ... At all. I hated her friends and how she acted when they were together and she hated me. She resented that I ratted her out when she had an unchaperoned summer party at my parents' house and couldn't understand why I didn't "trust her" after that event. She said that I "thought the worst of her" and that I was "out to get her." Neither of these things are true, but I can certainly see where she'd arrive at this conclusion.

Things were awkward for many years, but around 2005 they started to get better. I was done with college, preparing to get married, and she was there for me, as a bridesmaid. Youngest Sister was also part of the wedding, and, although she was still in high school, had reached a level of maturity that you don't usually expect from the person you always considered to be "the baby."

Maybe it's true that you need to move out of the house and that that little bit of distance makes things so much clearer. Maybe time really does heal all wounds, and it just takes a couple of years to end up at the same point in life.

Either way, I just spent the past three days with and/or around my sisters, and we, surprisingly, had a great time!

• Tuesday: Middle Sister and I broke in our new golf clubs at the driving range, and picked out towels, bath mats, and a shower curtain for the bathroom at her "new place."
• Wednesday: All three of us went to the beach and laid out for a couple of hours, and talked, joked, and gossipped like real sisters should do.
• Thursday: Was Youngest Sister's 20th birthday, so we spent the evening celebrating at a family cook-out. The three of us got the party rolling by forming our own three-piece "band" and rocking out on Youngest's new Play Station.

Like I said to start out this post, if you would have told me, five years ago, that I'd be spending days on end with only my sisters, I would have either rolled my eyes or laughed in your face.

This is one instance where I'm happy to be proven wrong.