An Open Letter to My Little Sister on National Siblings Day

Today is national sibling day so make sure you give your brother or sister a shoutout, hug or surprise today!

For my little sister, Caitlin, this post might be her "National Sibling Day" surprise.  For those of you who don't know, I do have a little sister who lives in Minnesota.  We're two years apart.  You think being that close in age we would've shared everything when we were younger: clothes, toys, friends, interests and we did...for a while.

We had big imaginations as kids and I have great memories of things I did with my little sister...like the dolphin game we used to play in the pool at our local swim and tennis club.  I can't remember all the "rules" we made up for it (and I don't think any of our friends ever really understood the rules we made up anyway) but I knew if you went into the middle section of the pool, there was a real risk you were going to get bitten by a shark.  Then there was the time where I read a story about the Pueblo people and their houses made out of adobe clay in class...so we built them out of blocks and blocked off the back half of our family room only to re-brand it as "Club Pueblo."  Oh, or when we tried to build our own version of the "Mars Pathfinder" out of some rope, blanket, sled, hula hoop and other random things in our garage.

But as we got older, we grew apart.  Caitlin had her own friends, I had mine.  I was super involved in all my extracurricular like track, cross country, orchestra, pit orchestra, the school's TV station, National Honor Society, Latin Club, Destination Imagination...and well, you get the idea. I wasn't home much, so it's no surprise Caitlin had a different group of friends and different interests.  And when our parents divorced after my senior year? Caitlin moved in with my mom and I would live with my dad when I was home from college on the weekends.

When I started working at my old radio station, that became my life. I'd go to class, go to work, stay the night with whichever boyfriend I was dating at the time...and repeat.  I was horrible at keeping in touch with people outside that circle, including my sister. And when I moved to Boise? My flakiness got 10x worse.

But today on National Siblings Day, I want my little sister to know that I am incredibly proud of who she grew up to be.  She graduated from Ohio State, then Ohio Dominican and went on to nail the very first physician assistant job interview.  You know where she ended up? THE Mayo Clinic's main campus in Minnesota! That's a big freakin' deal!

Caitlin was also the one that was around to help my family through the loss of my Grandma in 2012.  If it weren't for Caitlin holding the phone up to my Grandma's ear in the hospital, I wouldn't have had the chance to say goodbye.  Even though I wasn't there for her entire illness, I heard things at the funeral that let me know how much of a rock my little sister was for my family.

She doesn't throw people away either.  When she got married last year, I loved seeing how many people she knew from the time she was a kid show up at the wedding. No doubt, she did a really great job of keeping in touch with everyone over the years.

My little sister really grew up to be someone that mom's should want their little girls to grow up to be and I want to make sure she knows that even though I selfishly got wrapped up in my own life, I see the things she does that touch the lives of the people she's around.

Happy National Siblings Day, Caitlin!