Seven Years Apart

There are four people in my family: my mom, my dad, my sister, and me. I am seven years younger than my sister which I think is quite an uncommon age gap for siblings in a family of four. Since we’re seven years apart, our relationship is very different compared to most siblings. Growing up, we didn’t have many of the stereotypical problems that most siblings deal with since we rarely fought. There were only a handful of things that we both liked or had in common. Of course, our completely opposite personalities may have contributed to this, but I have always felt as if we were a generation apart.

On most days, we would just sit together after school and work on our own thing. We rarely spoke to one another because there simply wasn’t anything to talk about. Now that my sister is in medical school and I’m in high school, our relationship has changed a lot because we’re both older, and the age difference isn’t as prominent as it was when we were kids.

Now we spend more time together and enjoy activities like exercising, listening to music, and eating our shared favourite foods. Although we are a lot closer now, there are some things that my sister and I never did that I’ve heard most of my friends say they have done with their siblings. Below I have listed some things about our relationship. If you have an older or younger sibling, see how many of these you can relate to!

• We never went to the same school together. When I was in first grade, my sister moved to a different school for middle school, so we never went to the same school at the same time. Thankfully my sister had a good reputation, which made some of the teachers like me (though I did not live up to the same standards).
• We had no issue with sharing. I think a lot of siblings complain about sharing, but my sister and I never had that issue. I never wore my sister’s hand me downs because I grew out of them too quickly and most of them were donated before I was born. We also had totally different styles, so I’m very fortunate that my parents were willing to buy me new clothes.
• We never really played together. With an age gap of seven years, it’s no surprise we were never interested in the same things. I mean, trying to convince my sister to help me build a life-sized dragon out of Legos when she was interested in board games like Clue and Monopoly is harder than you would think. Plus, there was always the I’m too old for this or you’re too young for that restriction that made playing together more complicated than it already was. It didn’t help that every time I asked my sister to play, she responded with I’m busy doing homework or I need to study.
• We rarely fought. Since my sister and I went to different schools we got home at different times. She often had afterschool activities and lots of homework, which left us with little time to interact. Being the younger child, I was sometimes a rascal, pre-planning pranks to get her attention. This would undeniably annoy her every time and give her another reason as to why we could not play together. Sometimes Mom and Dad would get involved, in which case I made sure to play the victim!
• Avoiding the blame. If you’re the youngest sibling in the family, I’m sure you understand what I mean when I say that I have become a professional con artist. This has left my sister as the scapegoat most of the time because no matter who started the fight, she always ended in some kind of trouble.
• Having a free personal tutor. I think every younger sibling reaps the benefit of having a free personal tutor. Anytime a difficult math question comes up or an English essay needs proof-reading, my sister is the go-to person I ask (she’s probably going to proof-read this article). Sometimes that involves having to listen to a passionate math lesson about finding the equation of a straight line, but at the end of the day when you ace that math test, it’s all worth it.
• No matter what they love you. The best part about having an older sister is that she will always be there for you. Even after you’ve just accidentally flung baking powder all over her arm, she’s willing to laugh it off because she loves you. If anyone ever tries to take advantage of you, she’s there to protect you; if anyone tries to hurt you, she’s there to defend you. But when you have a bloody nose, she might not notice and keep on reading stories to you.