Possibly something I had started talking with Kel about when I still lived at home, and realized that my sister and I had grown apart, therefore I was looking for a way to connect and stay in touch with her. After all, you sow what you reap. Or some kitschy cliche like that, that basically means to have a friend, be a friend; if I wanted us to live up to the full potential of the sisterly o&o* bond I knew we shared, we would need dedication. While I am obviously biased, we have one of the closest, unique and evolved [sister] relationships, and one for which I am the most proud of to date. Now do not let your mind go there. When I say 'evolved', I mean we have grown beyond and above the petty hierarchical/power-hungry, competitive sibling dynamic b.s., and not that we have evolved to become anything more than platonic sister-bestfriend-roomies. It makes sense, because we also have cousins on both sides of the family who are also best friend-sisters-once-roomies, so it runs deep in our family to prioritize, befriend, celebrate, & come to depend on your sibling. Through the decades, much like any other mortal, Kelly and I have worked through a multitude of triumphs and losses: shared school-years (elementary, high school, university); volleyball days when she would chase me around the gym; the furthered development of a freeway disrupting and uprooting our childhood neighborhood; rushing the same sorority hand-in-hand.....And with countless memories in between and afterwards......many years we later found ourselves young business professionals enmeshed too far in our own lives to be integrated into each other's more than anything sporadic and infrequent. That had to change. And it did with time, maturity, and investment in bettering our o&o sister relationship.
And so it went the old adage we have all come to memorize, "The only thing inevitable in life is change." Change we both did. We evolved. We adapted. She morphed into the beautiful butterfly that she truly always was, shedding her old self (without going too much into that, I will save the details for her to elaborate upon in a future post). And I became liberated; I recommitted to myself and took back something I had been longing for for a long time, yet in my comfort (don't EVER get comfortable & stop challenging yourself!!) I had lost site of my true desires and dreams, having had settled for what I thought I wanted for myself yet had forgotten how much I thrived on and had not yet completed developing: me, myself, my personal development, not to mention my singledom, my independence. I had been in a long-term relationship for the better part of 5.5 years and was struggling for too long with what I wanted and what I thought I wanted for my life. And perhaps I should have sought therapy somewhere in-between, but I made it to the surface somewhat unscathed and boy have I missed the air up here! While I have made it seem so externally, it has not been an easy process emotionally, physically, or mentally (but faithfully & spiritually this led me onward and upward), as leaving my ex and his family of friends was like getting jumped OUT of a gang, but I prayed and found strength to make the most difficult decision I had made in 29 years, because I knew that is what I had to do for the best for all parties. The easiest decisions in life rarely have any emotions tied to them. I digress....... But what I really want to end this stanza on is that through our changes, we drew closer in support; we both became seemingly stifled and then somewhat bored with the lives that had consumed us and we sought out something better. Something more. We stood up, grew up, raised our standards, and hand-in-hand, we moved on towards the light.
Just like attending college together at Cal Poly Pomona brought us closer, so did my moving out and becoming a responsible, independent adult. My first move out to Santa Monica proved to Kel that I could function on my own. The next chapter up in Santa Barbara showed her that I actually THRIVED on my own, as I was living completely on my own without any familiar faces in the community to level with. That year I finally blossomed. 200+ miles from 'home', I had only myself to count on, and I grew to enjoy that reliance upon myself, that complete and utter solitude and serenity. I had only me, myself, & I, and I lapped it up. I could not get enough. Alas, that year of my life passed quicker than any other, and before I knew it, I was being called in another direction, to return home for a great trifecta of opportunities that I simply could not resist. This new opportunity would make it possible for me to live with my sister, my best friend, the only one in life (besides God) that I did not have to explain myself to. I had been wanting to live with Kel for the better part of a decade if not fantasized about it for most of my life. Finally we had our chance! I took the position and moved from 'a little slice of Heaven' in SB, down to Pasadena, where Kel and I added roomies to our experience. And so we have been blissfully (I don't know if blissful is the right adjective here), and complementarily cohabitating for seven months. If only we could set up a video camera to capture all the unbeweavable randomness. The cloud is not big enough..........
Just like attending college together at Cal Poly Pomona brought us closer, so did my moving out and becoming a responsible, independent adult. My first move out to Santa Monica proved to Kel that I could function on my own. The next chapter up in Santa Barbara showed her that I actually THRIVED on my own, as I was living completely on my own without any familiar faces in the community to level with. That year I finally blossomed. 200+ miles from 'home', I had only myself to count on, and I grew to enjoy that reliance upon myself, that complete and utter solitude and serenity. I had only me, myself, & I, and I lapped it up. I could not get enough. Alas, that year of my life passed quicker than any other, and before I knew it, I was being called in another direction, to return home for a great trifecta of opportunities that I simply could not resist. This new opportunity would make it possible for me to live with my sister, my best friend, the only one in life (besides God) that I did not have to explain myself to. I had been wanting to live with Kel for the better part of a decade if not fantasized about it for most of my life. Finally we had our chance! I took the position and moved from 'a little slice of Heaven' in SB, down to Pasadena, where Kel and I added roomies to our experience. And so we have been blissfully (I don't know if blissful is the right adjective here), and complementarily cohabitating for seven months. If only we could set up a video camera to capture all the unbeweavable randomness. The cloud is not big enough..........
Needless to say (so why even say it, Megan?!), the sister-blog has been a long time coming. Hell, we are not going to go the sister-wives route, so this will be a way to share and memorialize our adventures as sisters-besties/o&os*/roomies - as we move cross-country/continent/cultures. Oh yessssssssssss, the move. Well, you first learned of this in Kel's previous post, but I reference such because this is the impetus, this what gave us the ammo to finally start this beast! 'Beast' because I know by the time Kel & I close this blog-chapter (if EVER?!), this blog will be a BEAST. Behemoth. Gigante. Bête. An archive of all the crazy, challenging, unprecedented, strengthening antics/experiences/memories we have and will continue to create together. So stay tuned. Buckle up, grab a craft beer, some hummus & pita chips, & get read for the ride ahead. Because we know there will be a ride. No one said this was going to be easy. But what worth it in life is easy? What value do we get out of what is given to us, what is easy, what is comfortable? At what point in the rat race do we grow? When things CHANGE. Because change evokes growth, personal development, new connections and networking, new experiences and color to life, new ENERGY. Take note of the CAPPED words through my adventure of sister-blogging, because I will call out, if not tell a fun story through these words. =) And with that, goodnight and good luck. In life and all that you do. Make sure you give it your all and take advantage of the awesome opportunities life hands you from time to time. Go out on a limb and take an adventure. You will never regret failure. You will only regret the missed opportunity. You only have today and this moment. Seek the unknown. Or spend the rest of your life wondering "what if", and exclaiming "should have, could have, would have".
Cheers to changes!
Cheers to changes!
XO Peace and LOVE. XO
*o&o = one & only (it's our sister-petname-acronym, as designed by meself. =)
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