Day 153: Are we . . . Best friends?

After roughly 30 years, I think I've finally learned what a "best friend" is. Clearly this was the processing time required to consciously identify and understand my never spoken definition for the term.

Whoa . . . that's a long time . . .

Yeah, it is...

It took me that long to realize that having a best friend was like having a twin. It's the person you want to spend most of your time with and with whom you have the most shared interests and tastes.

So, by that definition, my twin sister must be . . . my best friend?!

What a wild thought!

As strange as it may seem, it took me well into adulthood to recognize this and to see our relationship as anything other than the label of 'sisters'.

I just thought that sisters spent time together. And that that was an universal thing.

I didn't know one could be 'best friends' with a sibling. All of the other kids I knew growing up were 'best friends' with kids that weren't related to them.

This insight revealed another piece of my sibling relationship puzzle - my perception of labels.

I have viewed most things in life as only able to 'be' one thing - to wear one 'label.'

What I am recognizing now is that there is no limit or restriction for labels. Things can be whatever we want them to be and - most often - are a mixture of many things.

This is certainly true of my relationship with my twin sister.

 

Undeniably we are sisters, both biologically and visually. And we are also best friends.

Labels help us to categorize and navigate life.

And in order to more deeply understand and experience life we must determine what our labels actually mean to us.