[mis]adventures of a small town girl

"A part of you has grown in me, together forever shall we be, never apart, maybe in distance, but not in heart."

Dear Kiki,

You're pretty precious here, with your chubbalicious little cheeks and the coveralls with the crotch at your knees. Part of me will always remember you this way.

We haven't always been the best of friends, or even the best of sisters, but I want you to know that today, your twenty-second birthday, I'm thinking of you.

It's hard to believe how much you've grown up. It seems like when I went away to university almost seven years ago, you were going to stay my very young, very innocent, sister forever. Oh how the times have changed.

Though we're not always the best of friends, I want you to know that I try to protect you because you remind me of me. It hurts to see you make the same mistakes that I did, even though I understand why you have made them. I want you to see what a beautiful, smart (yes, you are), special girl you are. I want you to be able to see that no matter what boys tell you.

I'm glad that you're working hard, and that you've found a boy you like to be with and who thinks the world of you. I'm happy for you. And I hope that you crazy kids have a fantastic time at the concert I'm sending you tickets for. Promise to have a drink and think of me... the old times sneaking out the window of your room and taking long walks down the back country roads in our pajamas (and hiding in the ditches whenever we saw headlights).

I understand you, and you, me. My life is better with you in it.

Happy birthday, dear Kiki.

"Sisterhood is a messy, fragmentary, ambiguous thing, an indiscriminate jumble of love, hate, amity, enmity, to be teased out bit by bit." Penelope Farmer