During my first night sleeping back in my room at home I was awakened at 3am by the noises of The Vampire Diaries and my sister rustling around in her bed. Barely awake, I tiredly lock eyes with my sister as her face is illuminated by her phone screen. Like nothing, she quickly grins at me and then returns her eyes to her screen as she munches on her bag of chips.
When I woke up again that morning my sister Ruby, surprisingly enough, was awake too. In fact she never slept. She walks in eating her banana bread that she excitedly tells me she made at 6am while she tidies up our room. She picks up her fork from beside her bed that she used the prior night, when she was eating cake in a mug during the late hours of the night. For a couple more hours she’s running around the house, bouncing off the walls, and obviously she’s wearing my clothes that she didn’t ask for permission to wear. Little more than a couple hours later, Ruby is fast asleep and once again sleeping through half of the afternoon to start the cycle once again. It’s truly hard to encapsulate the essence of my sister in written words, but if I could explain her in one of her favorite things to say it would be, “Maybe I’m the normal one and you guys are the weird ones; it’s all about perspective.”
One of my biggest concerns about moving out of Davis and going through this whole situation was adjusting to being a college student at home, and having a lot of my independence and ability to be alone taken away. The thought of being stuck with my family for who knows how long seemed nauseating at first, but from this experience I’ve learned to appreciate the chaos that I’ve now grown to love.
Constantly being with my two sisters who are both experiencing the various degrees of teenage angst definitely has its downsides. The moodiness is one thing. In fact while I was writing this article, I tried showing my sister what I was writing. She looked at the screen and moaned and groaned about being tired and subsequently kicked me out of the room. Along with moodiness comes a lot of bickering, that yes I do often start, but that’s besides the point. So yeah, do I often wish I was an only child? Absolutely. But there is anybody else I’d rather be stuck with 24/7? I don’t think so.
This experience has almost been an extreme make-up for lost time. Growing up, my sisters and I all had crazy schedules and days that we would all be home at the same time were rare. So, throughout this lockdown period I’ve learned the importance of taking the time to appreciate the little things. Going outside and walking around is something I’ve grown infinitely more grateful for. But most of all, I’ve learned to appreciate and adore the madness of my family.