On Being an Older Sister

Something that stuck out to me from this week that Mrs. Feldkamp said was how being a parent is like "having your heart outside of your body." Even though I'm obviously not a parent, I feel like this rings true in how I view my relationship with my two younger siblings.

In an attempt to relate this to the poetry unit we're on right now, I guess I'll say that both being an older sister and engaging with poetry — whether it be listening, reading, or writing it — both feel like reducing life to its basic elements.

The feeling of being an older sister, while can never replicate the experience of being a parent, is like constantly looking over your shoulder to make sure that your siblings don't make the same mistakes you did in similar situations. We're bound by blood, and if not, we're bound by having grown up in similar environments, so the chances are likely that my siblings will make the same mistakes I did. In this sense, not only am I concerned for my personal survival, but the survival of my siblings to try to save them from the same heartbreak I've faced in the past.

While poetry is something altogether different, I feel like poetry can also feel like a matter of survival — to understand, as intimately and honestly, why something is. I think poetry can deter people so easily because its message often seems like it's muddled by metaphors and symbols, but I feel like these things actually make the message more clear by explaining something to someone as if they've never experienced it before by distilling something to the elementary feelings and emotions that define it. Thus, being an older sister and poetry teach me better how I can go about living my life.💌