Happy Birthday, Kelsey!

When I was about three and a half, my mom had her third child. There was absolutely nothing wrong with Sean - he was cute enough, and we've had plenty of great memories over the years, and almost twenty-six years later I still like him. The problem was that I already had a brother at the time, and mathematically it didn't seem to make sense for my mom to give me another one. Family lore says that after Sean popped out, I asked my mom if there was a girl baby still in there for me. There wasn't. Yet.

I had to wait another lifetime from that point to get my girl baby. Even though there were only two years between Eric and I, and just a year and a half between Eric and Sean, my parents had a habit of having children only when they moved to a new state, and while Indiana (me) and Illinois (Eric) had been brief stays, we spent a bit longer in Colorado (Sean). When at last we moved to California, there was a fourth sibling in the making, and on February 20, 1987, I finally got my then-lifelong wish.

Kelsey and I are very close to exactly seven years apart, and it's been interesting to me to watch our relationship change as that seven year gap becomes much smaller relative to our respective ages. Growing up, I felt like a second mother to her. The fun mother, of course. I read to her many of the books my mom had read to me, and babysat her while everyone else was at soccer practices or baseball games, and told her stories at bedtime (though they had to be catered to her tastes, which generally meant lots of gymnasts and broken arms, occasionally with unique twists like intergalactic flight). I gave her "roller coaster" rides on my legs and taught her to play the piano (with small success) and let her braid my hair.

At the same time, she was the most receptive audience I had, and because she was such a good, willing listener, I told her everything. She knew what I did during the day, and what boys I liked, and what drove me crazy about high school, and what I wanted to do with my life. When I left for college she was 11 years old, and she wrote to me quite religiously for awhile, very cute letters that were almost the only thing that could make me homesick. ("Are you a little homesick?" she asked in one of her letters. "I'm a lot Amy-sick.")

And because we had been so close for so long, one day I realized that Kelsey was no longer a little girl any more, she was a young woman, and that in the process of becoming a young woman she had also gradually shifted from being my baby sister to becoming my best friend. I have had many wonderful friends over the years, and have many wonderful friends now, and hope to meet many wonderful people in the future. Kelsey too has had great friends, and now she has a new, lifelong best friend in Garth, and I could not be happier with her choice. But no matter what our life circumstances, as we both eventually have families of our own, we will always have an entire lifetime of shared experiences and inside jokes and an unwavering mutual respect even in spite (and partly because of) an intimate knowledge of each others' shortcomings. Kelsey will always be my best girlfriend, and I can't even imagine not having her in my life.

So I want to take advantage of my blog today, on Kelsey's 22nd birthday, not only to wish Kelsey happy birthday, but to let everyone else know what a wonderful little sister I have, and how grateful I am to her for being a great friend, a great listener, and a great example to me. Happy birthday, Kelsey! I hope I can be as good a sister to you as you have always been to me.

[I know a lot of you don't know my little sister, but if you do leave a comment on this post, leave it for her today :).]