Siblings are the perfect best friend

 Do you have a brother or sister that is your best friend? If you said yes, you’re lucky. Having a sibling as a best friend is amazing because they’ll always be there for you, no matter what. Regular friends are able to come and go out of your life as they please, but family can’t. Family is everlasting, and why wouldn’t you find a best friend in a sibling? Siblings likely have gone through some of the things that you are going through or will go through in the future, so they have first-hand experience to give you advice.

My best friend is, and always has been, my sister Lizzy. She may be eight years older than me and some of you may think that it would be hard to connect with an age gap that big, but it isn’t. My sister always gives me advice from experience and she is really easy to connect with. It was easy to deal with problems in school or anywhere else with my sister there to help. I feel as if as a child I was weak, and it was okay because I had so many people around me, especially my sister, who were being strong for me. And that is why I continue to get stronger.

As a kid you don’t have to be strong because of the people around you. But with the strength around me I learned to be strong earlier. Not too long ago my grandfather died of cancer. He had been going through the pain for a while and it gave a sense of relief when he passed away because he wouldn’t have to go through that pain anymore. For most of the family, this wasn’t easy at all. I told myself in my head that this was the time to be strong. This was the first time that my strength was tested, and I knew I was ready because of how strong my sister had been in past situations. I idolized her strength.

My sister taught me a lot as I grew up. Not only did she teach me how to be strong, but she taught me how to be honest. A select number of you, probably mostly just my mom, know that whenever Lizzy needs an honest opinion on clothes before she buys them she comes to me. I’ve been around her so much that I know what looks good on her and I can tell it like it is. Not too long ago she was going to a wedding and had narrowed her dress search down to three. She and my mom weren’t exactly sure which one to pick. So what do they do? They bring Eric along. I’m sure some of you have been to dress barn and know that seeing an 18 year old man there isn’t very common, but I agreed. To make a long story short, I picked out the dress for her to wear. Not only was it cheaper than the other two, go figure, but she also looked absolutely beautiful in it. I don’t beat around the bush though, I told her within five minutes what dress I liked and I made sure that she knew why. I guess I’m some sort of fashion guru…just kidding.

Lizzy often acts like a second mother to me, which is understandable because she’s eight years older than me. When I was younger I absolutely hated this to be honest with you. She seemed to always be the one to discipline me and I didn’t like that. As I got older I began to appreciate it more because I realized that her intentions were always good. She simply wanted to make me into the best man that I could be and her way of doing this was to make sure I knew that I did something wrong. I thank her for doing that and helping shape me into the man I am today.

If you and your siblings aren’t close, you’re definitely missing out. Being best friends with my sister has showed me that I’ll always have a friend there for me. And I’ll always be there for her too. Through it all, I have a friend. I encourage you all to try to have this relationship with your siblings. Give them a call just to see how their day is going or grab lunch and just spend time with them, show them you care. Remind them that you’ll always be there if they need someone. Because when something in your life changes, such as where you live or your job, you might lose some of the friends that you have met. But you will never lose that friend that you have in your sibling. 

-Eric Proulx