All of my life, I was thought of
as “Hayley’s little sister”, and that was okay with me. I love my big sister,
and ever since I was little, I would strive to be more like her. I would play
sports that she would play, and wear clothes that she would wear, and became
like a mini-Hayley clone. When I started playing volleyball, I played because
she played, but I fell inlove with the sport and continued playing after she
quit. But it wasn’t until my sister left home, that I became my own person.
Last year, instead of starting college right away, Hayley took a gap year
program, called Nativ, and went to Israel for nine months. That was nine months
without my big sister, my role model. But in those nine months, I grew as a
person. I started to listen to music that I found on my own, and clothes
that I liked myself, and things stopped
being about Hayley. It wasn’t like when she was home I would say “This will
make me more like my sister”, but subconsciously, I would want to be like her. But
since she was in a whole other continent, I could grow. And I did. i became incredibly close with my big
brother, and I tell him everything. Which is good, because he’s an insanely
honest person and would always call me out when I was being dumb. Without my
sister around, I was able to reach new levels in my volleyball career, by
taking my team to Junior Olympics. At first, it was a shock being able to
become my own person, instead of being under Hayley’s wing. But to me, it was a
life changing time.
