Comparison between Two Sisters - Essay Example

 “Comparison between Two Sisters” Margaret Mead once said “Sisters is probably the most competitive relationship in the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship.” When I read this quotation for the first time I got a strange feeling because I was only a child then and my parents always used to tell me to love my siblings and to take care of them so I could never relate to the “competitive relationship” aspect. This quotation however, started making a lot more sense when a got a chance to observe my cousin’s daughters closely last year when I went for a vacation to California. My experiences made me realize how two people can be vastly different and yet similar simultaneously. When I was studying primary school biology, I remember the teacher once told us that all of the character traits which children exhibit are inherited from their ancestors, and yet here they were, two sisters who a stranger could never tell had the same blood running through their veins. Two years back my cousin, Kate invited me over to California during the summers to spend the vacations with her family, and I had readily accepted the invitation. Kate had married Sam, African America Doctor. It was the first time I was going to meet Kate’s two daughters, Kate used to talk about them all the time. The older one, Anna was twelve years old and the younger one Sally was ten years old during the summers last year. If I were to describe them physically then Anna was very much like Kate, she had her flawlessly pink complexion, beautiful hazel eyes, and dark brown shoulder length hair that were delightfully curly. She had a fairly good height for her age too. Sally, on the other hand had straight black hair that came down to her waist; she had her father’s dark skin, big round eyes that were black in color. Sally was slightly chubby adding to that was her average height. Both sisters were vastly different. The difference between the two was not just in their physical appearances but also in their personalities. As one would expect, Anna was more outgoing, vocal about her views, desires, and preferences, she had quite a huge circle of friends too. Sally on the other hand was very quiet, she was shy and usually avoided meeting people, and she had only one friend at school - Jane. Sally did not even talk much to her parents or to Anna. She liked to stay alone in her room, usually reading story books. The moment I met the two of them I could not help but notice how lovely Anna was and what a beauty she was growing into. However, the innocence on Sally’s face was so attractive that I automatically wanted to strike a conversation with her, it was only later that I realized how difficult a task that was. There was something in Sally’s eyes that was so intriguing. It was like she had a doubt in her mind or a judgment made against me which was expressing itself through her big black eyes. I instinctively felt her discomfort around me as she rushed inside her room right after meeting me. During my two weeks stay at Kate’s house, I tried very hard to woo Sally with toys and story books but none of that seemed to work much really, where as Anna was so expressive and became friendly with me in no time, becoming Sally’s friend was quite a challenge. I used to talk a lot to Kate about the difference between the two sisters and what she felt was the reason behind it. Kate feared that Sally was undergoing an inferiority complex, centered mainly on her complexion. I could not even conceive the idea of what Kate had told me, I felt that she was over thinking it and that in this day and age such issues do not plague young children especially in a progressive country like the United States of America. However, I was convinced when Kate narrated a few instances of situations in which Sally was targeted and ridiculed in front of her schoolmates by a few kids by making comments on her skin color and how she was so different from her sister. My heart ached for little Sally, I could not imagine what the poor child had to go through every day of her life, after all children are children, the kids who used to make fun of Sally might just have made a comment on the evident difference in the physical appearance of the two sisters - not really knowing how deeply it affected Sally. After around a week of my stay I was on talking terms with Sally, she had finally bestowed upon me the pleasure of her company and what a charmer she was. I frequently used to ask both the sisters about their likes and dislikes, whereby Anna usually replied with tangible products for example she liked toys and disliked fish curry, Sally replied on a higher level of abstraction, for example she liked stories with happy endings and she disliked noise and crowds. When I used to see both the sisters together I could feel the love they shared, I could see how protective they both were about each other, and particularly Anna being the elder sister was always on the lookout for Sally. She used to try and shelter Sally in crowded places sensing Sally’s discomfort. That bond shared between the two of them was so rare and worth cherishing for life. When I was leaving them after two weeks I just did not want to part with them, I knew Anna was good on her own too, she was confident and ready to face the world, but Sally, she seemed so fragile. Making reference once again to Margaret Mead’s quotation, I am sure Sally could feel the pressure of the comparisons made between her and Anna but what was relieving was that Anna and Sally were not competing against each other by choice, it was by circumstance and by design that the competition was developing and I just hope and pray to God that as the two of them grow older the beautiful bond that they share grows to become even more strong. Read More