"Big Sisters"

Now, to be fair, here are some of the "big sisters" in my life, since I just covered the big brothers.

- "the red-headed one"
This big sister and I have had a relationship for...oh, 8 years? I met her in homeschool study hour, and absolutely worshiped her - because at that point, I was a lowly middle school-er and she was a high school-er who talked to me. Our relationship grew, and she was less 'goddess-like' as I got older (of course, the bond of serving on camp staff together helped). I got Facebook when she was going to college, because I wanted to keep up with her life. Although we're following very different paths now (she's in Ireland, having all kinds of adventures), I really love this big sister. :)

- "the one who works for Google"
This big sister is actually officially assigned to be my peer mentor at UMBC. She's smart, and talented, and everyone adores her - me included. She's the Google campus ambassador, and in general carries herself with such confidence and grace that I can't wait to grow up and be like her. She's my CS big sister, offering me advice on professors and courses to take. We don't really interact outside of CWIT events, because of our different busy lives, but she's always got a happy smile for me when I see her.

- "the Asian one"
This big sister will probably not appreciate being referred to as a big sister - she would point out that the difference in our ages is not as great as I like to pretend that it is. I had heard a lot about her before I actually got to know her (one of my big brother figures is dating her and told me about her). When I actually started getting to know her, she proved to be exactly as awesome as he had claimed. :) We get to have lunch every week, and as a result, our relationship has become more equal, but she'll always be a 'big sister' in my mind. I get the pleasure of watching her graduate college and learn from her how best to prepare myself for graduation. She's (perhaps unknowingly) forced me to look deeper into how I represent myself as a Christian, and what parts of church government/doctorine/etc are important to me. We also talk a lot about marriage and dating. She's in a committed relationship while I am not, so I am learning things from her that wouldn't have occurred to me on my own. She claims I teach her things as well, which I would hope is true, but which I, in my own mind, highly doubt.

Like with the big brothers, there are countless more big sisters who I could write about, but the ones who are here are pretty diverse. I love that Christian community uses the terms 'brothers and sisters' (maybe because I come from a big family) because it allows anyone, from 8 to 80, to be part of these lists. :)