From Your Little Sis...With Love

4 Years and a generation apart, but forever entwined in each others heart...

 

There's so much to say about our relationship that I don't quite know where to begin or how to put it into words...Because words can never effectively capture the millions of moments, the memories that bind us...

 

Four years doesn't seem like a lot now, but when we were growing up it meant that you were always a phase ahead of me. And though we were part of the same backdrop and our lives overlapped in so many ways...we were separated by our difference in age and for a while it meant that our mutual interests were not the same.

 

I don't have much recollection of our early years...besides that you were always the villain in our games (Skeletor!). We called you Hitler (happens when you share a birthday with the guy). You loved sport and still do (you should hear the flashbacks on the kids sports days! haha) and that you knocked one of my teeth out during a game of PAC MAN outside on the hand painted tennis court (the tooth wasn't loose...don't mess with her)! Bicycle tricks and swimsuit model (you want to see pics?)...you cooked and I didn't (say what??)...these are the things I remember with fondness.

 

Being younger means that I got to watch you navigate through life ahead of me. In a way, you were my window to what lay ahead...In some ways, you still are. From motherhood to teenage kids, I observe and I learn...

 

When I was 4 and starting nursery, you were already in primary school. Watching you already safe and settled made it easier for me to embrace the same change...When I eventually caught up to primary school, you were already a seasoned bookworm. Nancy Drew and Enid Blyton...Hardy Boys and Bobsey twins. I couldn't wait to be able to read too!

 

When I reached 10 and you had already moved on to Sweet Valley High and other teen romance books; I remember desperately wanting to mirror you and read the same books you did. Visit the mobile library with the same passion you did. Sadly, it didn't happen that way. Instead it was Dada's (big brother) literature that captured my attention and made me fall in love with words. J.R.R Tolkien, Terry Pratchett, David Eddings (Sorry!)

 

I remember a lot of the things you did for Moon...I remember those things often these days because Saafiyah does so many of those things for Zaydaan and it makes me proud to know she inherited it from you...

 

I remember you as a teen....admiring you all dressed up, envious of your pretty new clothes; those stone wash jeans (now famously known as ankle grazers); while I wore hand me downs! When I eventually caught up to 16, you got married and left home....and I would wear one of your old skirts just because I liked the way it used to look on you!

 

Somewhere down the line things changed... Time passed. We grew up and the gap grew closed. As we have grown older, we have broken down the barriers of age and while your old school values make me seem like a little rebel, the fact that we are at similar stages in life, kind of evens the keel. I am still the little sister, but a lot less little and a lot more grey (more than you even...wisdom perhaps?).We might not have lay in bed sharing secrets or confessed our trials and errors when we were young, but we more than make up for it now...pouring our hearts out on coffee dates....and in the school parking lot. Helping each other through life; encouraging one another to be the best we can be...

 

I always hated being referred to as one of mom's 'babies' (a title I share with Moon). Although these days I like to act as though I am older.... Dishing out advice.... Giving out orders... You are the responsible one. The dependable one. The one who is steadfastly loyal to us all...and today I am proud to be called your little sister!!

 

 

Happy Birthday Appa!!

 



 Love Always,

 

NAMU :)