just last week i saw what my sister wrote about my dad, and it honestly made me tear up... it wasn't just another touching article about family -- it made me realize just how much i let what's happening around me draw my attention away from the people who are the most important in my life. so in mitigation, and in the light of the weather being too hot to do homework in, i will write this little essay:

my sister

my sister will be 22 years old 4 days from now. her name is jasmin, without the e behind cos my parents wanted to be hip and happening, just like not putting our chinese names in our birth certs. she just graduated from UPenn, and is in MIT doing a 2 year masters course in one year. She was in the national netball team before college got the best of her favourite sport, but while in college became the president of the upenn ssa, worked 2 jobs, got attached, broke up, got attached again, got into badminton and basketball teams, found God, got an econs prize, etc etc.

my earliest memory of my sister was when she bit me on the arm when i was 3. according to my grandmother (who remembers everything about her grandchildren), i was playing with this cute penguin game where the penguins would go up this escalator and then slide down -- very fascinating for a 3-year-old. my sister, meanwhile, fascinated herself with plucking the penguins off everytime they reached the top of the escalator. That didn't sit very well with me, and soon the little competition for the future of the penguin colony escalated into a battle that ended with my arm being bitten, and all questions of physical superiority answered.

we used to have a sticker book each. my sister, being a girl, naturally had more (and nicer) stickers than me. when things went well, we would trade stickers. when things didn't, she would say "i take back my stickers ah" to quell any hint of resistance.

my sister is one year younger than me. which means that for the first 18 years of our lives, she got all the precious testpapers, sample essays, completed homeworks, not-to-be-made-again mistakes that any competitive schoolkid would kill for. and consquently did a little better than me in school every single year.

we fought all the time. over:

who gets the front seat in the car
who gets to practice piano first
who has to play piano first when the dreaded piano teacher comes (i still have nightmares)
lights-out timing
story endings when we played acting games (one of the most hotly contested events in our growing-up years)
which channel to watch
which station to listen to
who changes the bedsheets
who hangs the clothes
who gets to use the internet (parents, please please buy two computers, or three if you have 3 kids, even if it's going to kill you)
and many more....

...and for half my life, i hated her with a vengeance.

when we locked ourselves in the car boot (ok don't laugh) when i was in primary 3, i comforted her while she sobbed and said we were all going to die.

when my parents ran into car trouble halfway up to loch ness with no clue where we were, the two of us played alphabet games to distract ourselves.

when one of my relatives came to our house to kick up a fuss, we hid in our bedroom and read the Illustrated Bible for Children, not because we were Christians then, but because it was me and her reading the Illustrated Bible for Children, in our room, with the door locked.

when i fell sick, she would put cold towel on my head for me. and vice versa.

in rjc, during the study break, when i got distracted and went off to play volleyball, she would shake her head and go "kor, study lah..." How not to feel guilty right?

when her a level results were going to come out, had no appetite for lunch.

when i broke up with kay, not once was she too busy to talk to me. vice versa.

she's been telling her friends that i'm the best brother in the world.

i've been telling my friends that she's the best sister in the world, and nothing will ever change my mind.

someone told me just recently that her friend from upenn told her that jasmin is very nice and down to earth. i couldn't agree more. she's the humblest person i know, besides my parents. she is also more highly achieving than anyone i know personally. my friends would shake their heads and go, "how can she do all these things and still have time to watch nba?"

whenever she messages me on msn and says, "kor i'm very sad..." i feel like the luckiest person in the world, not because i'm not very sad, but because i see a chance to make that tiny difference in her life, to do what a good brother ought to do.

just like she has done for me for my entire life.

there are many things i thank God for. today i thank Him for a friend, an enemy, a competitor, a comfort, a confidante, a partner, an advisor, and a very, very wonderful young lady.

























proud! and jealous too :P



p.s. mummy now your turn to write for me! haha :P