Well, the wedding is days away. It felt right to write something for my older sister before her big day, but my mind sometimes goes oddly blank at profound moments. It’s much easier to sit down and write about something random or unimportant. College prepares you for that. But we rarely write about the stuff that really matters. Some emotions are just too big to translate onto paper.We can say that some things go without saying–but they really don’t. I’d be remiss to pass up an opportunity to steal a glance in my rear view mirror and think about everything my sister means to me. A lack of looking in the rear view mirror can result in painful collisions–trust me, I backed into her car once.

Sarah has always helped edit my blog. She patiently went through each of my posts from abroad…even the ones I unwittingly constructed on a German keyboard. Yeah. They were basically in German. So I know she is sure to read this. As I said, the ability to be profound has escaped me in pre-wedding emotion/jitters. But they say a picture says a thousand words, so I’ll put my energy there, add a few quotes, and save the good stories for the toast.

This one’s for you, Sarahbeara. Looking back has made me look even more forward to your big day.

“Are you two twins?”–The question we’ve gotten literally hundreds of times. Nothing ever made me prouder. I only wish I was more like her inside, too.

“Oh yeah, I read that.”–My bibliophile sister’s response to just about every book I have ever cracked. Here, she is giving me an early intro to the love of her life, a good book. Later, she was my CliffsNotes. Thanks to you,  Sarah, I got by without reading Moby Dick.

“GET OFF OF MY FOOT!!!!”–From the best I could tell, that is what she was saying through the car window. Yup. I ran over her foot right before this football game. She didn’t hold against me.

Here, I’m sad because Sarah is going off for her first day of school. I was inconsolable until I realized that change doesn’t separate you from your best friend. It just gave us more to talk about.

“You girls are taking so many pictures you won’t remember anything.” –Daddy on vacation.  He had a good point, and we put the camera away. Cutting the technology was a sure-fire way to enjoy those adventures. But there is no way I have forgotten a single moment with Sarah. 

“Are you girls ready to go?”–The words we heard minutes before we were supposed to leave for a party. We had just covered Sarah in a homemade mud bath while playing spa. The hose broke, making the situation…messy. Over the years, we  had a chronic habit of splitting pants on barbed wire fences, getting pond scum in our hair and swimming in anything deeper than our ankles.

“She’s right here,”–Sarah, to a guy calling me as she handed me my phone–into the shower. She has always loved to–as we put it–crank me up. Being cranked up is super good for you. With someone pinching your rear, pantsing you, or popping out from behind corners to scare you, its impossible to take yourself too seriousl

“Don’t send us back there.”–Sarah’s and my response to the one time mom tried to send us to day care. It was called the “Little People Keeper,” and we hated it. Sarah spent her time defending and worrying about me, and I definitely didn’t like anything she didn’t. When babysitters came around, we worked in tandem to make their lives as miserable as possible. Here we are pouting at daycamp.

We are buddies. We are buddies.

We are buuuuddddiiieees.

We are buddies, we are buddies, we are buuuuudddiiiees.

–the lyrics to our favorite song to perform as children.

“Well that was thrilling. I was getting my hair done for the fist time with a  cap and couldn’t find the pick that came with the kit.  so, I sat outside in 80-degree weather in a long-sleeved shirt while Sarah used a small screw driver to pull my hair through. It took an hour. A bird pooped on me. Then a snake came right next to us and Mom jumped up on my chair. We didn’t have the outer cap, so we wrapped my head in saran wrap. Miraculously, I look fine.” –Journal entry, March 2011

One of my favorite pictures of my two sisters–my two best friends– and me. Snapped in Maine moments before Virginia sliced her foot on a renegade rock, and moments after Sarah slipped off the rock, ripping my coverup.

“I’m so proud of you.”–Sarah’s supportive reaction to my travels of late. Memories with her traveling are stupendous. Here we are in Malta last year.

“Moosetracks?”–Sarah before just about every Saturday night girls night. We would watch a movie, cut up magazines and eat junk food. Our pursuit of sugar also led to plenty of cooking debacles–and a kitchen inexplicably full of smoke and ash. It looked like the aftermath of Mt. St. Helens.

Sarah’s marriage is a day worth celebrating. Someone else is going to get the chance to share daily life with her. There’s no bigger blessing than doing that. Trust me. I know.