A Moment That Changed My Life

     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.