Emily

Emily is my big sister. For most people that I talk about here, I change their names, but I just cannot change Emily's, because it is too perfect for her.

Emily and I look almost exactly alike. One time, I was in the Wal-Mart parking lot, and someone Emily knew from school saw me and thought I was her. When I told him that I was actually his sister, he said, "...I didn't know Emily had a twin..." Even people at our church confuse us. Emily has about shoulder-length hair, and I'm infamous for my elbow length hair, and one day, a woman at church saw Emily and stopped her, exclaiming, "You cut all your hair!" Well, no, she hadn't.

I always used to hate that everyone told me I looked like Emily, but eventually, I was kind of happy that they did. I liked it that I was like Emily. Her nickname was Emmo, and for a while, I called myself "Lil Emmo" or sometimes "Lil Emo" (sometimes we had to shorten Emmo to Emo for video games or something, and it was also a common place of discussion for her friends as to whether or not Emily was Emo).

I don't think I could ever admit it to Emily, but she's probably the closest thing I have to a role model. I have learned so much from her without her knowing it. I guess that's kind of common for sisters, but Emily and I aren't very close, so it came as almost a shock to me when I realized that I take after her.

I always enjoy being around Emily (except when she's mad at me) because she's almost always so funny, so I try to behave a lot like her so my friends will enjoy being around me just as much.

I also try to dress like her. I used to think that the way Emily dressed was 'cool', but I have sinced learned that it wasn't really the in-style way to dress, it was just cute and unique.

One of the biggest thing I admire about Emily is probably... well I don't if there's a name for it. It's that when she has decided on something, she doesn't change. She knows what is right and wrong and she acts accordingly. She knows what she wants in a guy, and she won't date anyone but. She is hard-working and firm, without being overly intense or just flat-out stubborn, which is what I tend to be.

Emily has taught me several things, but there is one that stands out.

I had always thought of Emily has the perfect A student sister with the nicest friends and everything working out great for her. And at the point in time when she was applying to and starting college, she wasn't all that nice to me, or at least I didn't think she was. So I complained endlessly about her not knowing what her major would be or what she wanted to do (she didn't decide for years), mostly because Mom and Dad were helping to pay for a lot of the college, and I thought the money could be better spent sending me to a different school.

Well, everyone has a secret that, in some way or another, will probably break your heart.

I'm pretty sure my heart broke when, after she'd moved out, I was looking through all her old papers and found a journal entry about how she felt different and inferior to her friends and how confused she was about what to do with school. (I'm sorry that I was going through your stuff, Emily! Even though you will never read ths...) Well, I pretty much felt like a huge jerk.

Emily is just full of surprises. Another example of this is that Emiy never really had a boyfriend, and I thought it was because that's the way she wanted it. I remember coming home one day and Emily was at the counter eatting forkfuls of cookie dough and looking completely dejected. I asked her what was wrong, and she told me that this boy she had liked "wasn't in love with her." I asked her if we had wanted him to be, and she said, "Well, yeah." Long story short, Emily was completely crushed that he liked this other girl and not her and that she had even confessed her feelings, and I agreed to run the other girl over with the truck.

To finish up, I think Emily is one of the greatest people in the world. Even though we are almost identical, she is way prettier than me. She is also considerate and fun-loving, and definitely one-of-a-kind! She is so smart and hard-working and dedicated, but somehow she still manages to be relaxed and funny. She has really worthy goals and I think she is pretty much as perfect as big sisters come.

I don't know anyone who doesn't like Emily, but if I ever anyone who didn't, I think I'd have to shove a pencil up their nose.

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