I have two sisters. One twin sister, who, besides stealing my jeans and wearing my shoes, is my best friend. And my older sister, who is 15 years older than me, makes her 34. Growing up I never realized how truly lucky I am to have two sisters. When my older sister Tina got her license, we spent a lot of time going back and forth from the mall shopping for clothes or testing citrus scented perfumes. During these mall trips it was common for the older lady behind the cash register to tell the three of us how lucky we are to have something so special, sisterhood. 

In books and movies sisterhood is clearly defined. Although it can be complicated, like when Amy burns Jo’s rough drafts, and then has a fun snowball fight with her in the backyard, it perfectly encapsulates that sister drama and how quickly we can get over it. It’s interesting to think that something as old as sisterhood is timeless in its ways. The bickering, the fighting over the last cookie, or singing too loud in the shower is what any sister has gone through no matter the time period or age. 

As we grew older, I started to realize that maybe our geeky older sister wasn’t so geeky, it was her 21st birthday party that gave me this epiphany. Before then, Clare and I would be carted to her color guard performances with Tina in the car with bright purple eyeshadow that would glimmer in the light and a long flag that matched. We would sit and watch with the summer birds chirping in harmony and with the night turning those birds into lightning flies that we so desperately wanted to catch. 

I guess it could be seen as out-of-the-blue and random that for my defining moment I chose to write about my sister’s 21st birthday. But for me, and I am sure for a lot of younger sisters, it was nothing short of defining. 

Our house during this time was being completely redone. Blue tapestries filled the floors as if it were a rug and the smell of paint somehow lingered in the air even after everything was done. But those renovations didn’t stop my sister from having her iconic 21st birthday party. 

It’s 2014 and the scene is set. David Guetta made many appearances through the speakers, red solo cups filled with pink whitney, and there were enough cupcakes on the table to feed the whole neighborhood. As a young girl, my mom thought it was a bad idea for my siblings and I to be present while the guests were there so we were stowed away in the bedroom along with the coats while watching Disney. 

Like any curious girl who also loved David Guetta and cupcakes, I planned my escape from the room so that I could see what “older kids,” did for birthday parties. I wanted to know if it was anything like mine. Naively, I was expecting it to be similar to mine at the time. A princess cake with bows and crowns everywhere, and when I turned into the kitchen I was shocked that it wasn’t. Tina had invited both boys AND girls to this party and left the glittery purple eyeshadow behind. 

At ten years old, I had realized that my older sister was cool. She was wearing a black cocktail dress with 4-inch heels that, to me, added a sense of sophistication and style . I was looking around at familiar and unfamiliar faces and when they got close to me, their breath reminded me of my uncles on the Fourth of July. 

For the 20-minutes that I was with everyone and away from the coats, I saw who I wanted to be. My older sister. The one who was no longer the geeky, quirky, and dorky sister blossomed into a 21-year-old who was able to go out without mom or dad and have boys at the house. 

This moment for me shifted how I viewed my sister, and I no longer looked up to the girls on tv or in the magazines. Even now, I look up to her as my biggest role model and a woman I aspire to be like. Now that we’re older Clare and I are able to do things with her that we could have never imagined, like wearing a cocktail dress and 4-inch heels and going to get drinks. No matter how old we get or how far away we are from each other, the bond that I have with both of my sisters remains, and I know that I will always have two dates to a happy hour forever.