To My Sister, A Graduate

Currently Listening To: For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver. (Especially Skinny Love) (Inspired by last night's porchtime with Linnea and Leah)

Dear Linnea,

I remember when I first came to college. I was fresh off the plane from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where I had graduated in a class of eleven friends, and was suddenly at a college where there were almost more people in my dorm than my entire K-12 school. I was still having culture shock about things like free drink refills and the fact that I could buy a pair of jeans whenever I wanted.

You, however, had already been here for a year. You knew what was up, and you passed some of that knowledge on to me. I remember that we went to Ohill for lunch with our cousin Jessi on the first day of classes, and then about an hour after that I was calling you frantically because I realized I had just accidentally skipped my first college class ever. You told me it would be okay because it was a big lecture class and they were probably just figuring out enrollment stuff anyway. (You were right.)

   

You took me to the first Agape large group (where I met Liz, another MK, who just so happened to be my roommate this past year) and made me come to the root beer kegger that weekend (where I met several people I am friends with now). You would drive me places and I would cry in the car sometimes, because living in a dorm with a roommate is not always conducive to that, and you were the only familiarity I had.

After those first few months, I began to figure stuff out. But it was still nice having you around, seeing you several times a week, and especially this year when we lived a few houses down the street from each other, so if I was on my way home and you happened to be on your porch I could sit and join you. It’s also been…fun? working out how to share a car (especially when someone had a boyfriend who lived an hour away.. ;] ) but the upside of that was that we were often in constant communication...

All in all, who would of thought three years ago that we’d be sitting on your porch two nights after your graduation stuffing wedding invitations into envelopes?  You have so many exciting, wonderful things going on these days! You’re getting married, moving to Maryland with your husband where you'll be doing public health-y and grown up things!

And I’ll be sticking around here for another two years. Funnily enough, it’ll be the first time I’ve been at this school without you here, too. I’m pretty confident I can handle it, but I know that’s largely because of the way you were there for me from the very beginning. And if you ever want to come back and visit next year, you can definitely sleep on my floor.

 

Love,

Your Schwesder