30 Day Blog Challenge - Day 25

25. Talk about your siblings.

Don't get me started!

My sisters are Janis*, Jasmine* and Lotus* and my brother is Wyatt*. I share a mother with Janis and Jasmine, a father with Lotus, and both with Wyatt.

Janis is 13 years older than me. She is the accountant for a county district attorney's office and also enjoys gardening and raising animals such as goats, sheep, chickens, and turkeys. If not for her, I probably wouldn't have gone to college, because I was lacking a sense of direction at that time and afraid to fill out the applications. So she gave me one application for a nearby school and a pen, and made me sit at the table and fill it out. Thus began a long, long education.

My sister Jasmine is 12 years older than me. She is a draftsperson for a construction company, and also helps to run her local chapter of Slow Food USA (link). She's a food and wine lover and often sends me packages with very very random objects in it, such as a parrot flag, some yummy olive oil, and a penny. She has given me fond memories of camping trips on the coast, yard sale and thrift store shopping, and helping me repaint and decorate my bedroom when I was a teenager. We painted it a soft dusty pink, and put in a futon with fushchia flowers on a gray background. It was stunning.**

My sister Lotus is also 12 years older. She has the distinction of being part of my first memory (see a recent post), and also taught me to put carob in my mouth and then cough to send a puff of powdery fun all over the place. Lotus is very organized and thoughtful and is always giving me information that I didn't realize I needed but ends up being very helpful. She is involved in the Nonviolent Communication philosophy which is based on determining your own needs and the real needs of your partner/friend/coworker/opposition/enemy and attempting to reach a solution that fulfills everyone's needs.

Wyatt is 2 years younger than me. He is intelligent, strong-willed, and has a good sense of humor. He is going to school for accounting (last I heard) and is piling up the awards and accolades. He was somewhat surprised to be elected president of his fraternity, but it reminds me of how my mom was always chosen to be the leader of any organization that caught wind of her. I'm grateful to him for giving me one important piece of advice when I was complaining about grad school. He told me straight up that I should not quit - I should finish. It was surprising to hear this from him because it seemed out of character. So it stuck in my head and may have played a part in my eventual graduation.

*Names changed.

**I'm not being sarcastic.