A Piece Of My Heart

We are so different, her and I

Good morning, WDC!

I arrived in LA yesterday to help my mom bring my baby sister to college.

Wow. Did I really just say that? My sister is perpetually 12 years old in my mind. Whenever I think of her, I imagine a stubby toed, pudgy faced, shy child, but she is not that person any more. She’s grown up so much since I left for college myself, and I really wasn’t a part of that growth. It was as if each time I returned to Hawaii, she had another piercing, and then another tattoo. Another boyfriend, another therapist. Somewhere along the line, she stopped being my baby sister and became a woman with her own struggles and her own goals for her life. She wants to be an artist and a psychologist, two things I would never, never get anywhere near. We are so different, her and I, but like all sisters do, we have our own language still, and I cherish every visit we have together.

I know she is moving on now and will have to make her own path just as I had to do, but I still want to protect her as if she were still that little girl in my imagination.

This time when we met in LA and relaxed in the hotel before bed, she showed me her new nipple piercing and her new thigh tattoo. This is her fifth tattoo, and so far the others haven’t had any significant meaning, but she surprised me with this one. It’s a tribal design of a nene bird (the native Hawaiian goose, and state bird) with its wings representing the land and the sea. The tail is made up of three navigation stars and the body is the Kilauea volcano and Mauna Kea. There are also two smaller bird symbols on either wing that represent her and I flying away from HI.

Dang, that’s powerful. I love her for all the things she does that I would never dream of doing, but I never expected this. I’m excited to bring her to college and hopefully impart some advice along the way, but I also know she’ll be just fine on her own.

Love ya, sis!