“A Tale of Two Sisters”
By: Joelle Dahl
Tatiana Linda Jones
To have a loving relationship with a sister is not simply to have a buddy or a confident; it is to have a soul mate for life. ~Victoria Secunda
All she had ever wanted was to be loved by someone that she loved back. Had this ever happened? No. Was it too much to ask? She didn’t think so but apparently God did. 18-year-old Tatiana Linda Jones was just your average college freshmen with way too much on her plate and not enough time to just enjoy herself sometimes. She was a biology and chemistry double major. Not only class but also two different labs a week sucked up her time. She had met a bunch of new people but most of them were major partiers so she wasn’t very close to them because she did not want to partake in that wonderful American college student tradition. She had always been against alcohol, her mom and dad would offer her sips of their drinks (wine, beer, wine coolers…) but she had always refused not just because she already she knew she didn’t like the flavor but because it was illegal and she knew way to many facts about how bad the effects of alcohol can be for a person. She had moved across the country for college hoping that she would be able to start over and not have to deal with all the same crap that she had in high school because no one would know her which would mean that she could be whoever she wanted to be. She would no longer be another one of the guys because she was sick of that. She had decided that she was going to be a sporty girl not a sporty tom boy, hoping that this would help her meet guys in her element and maybe catch them liking her at the same moment that she was liking them. The goal of the year was a date…she did not care if she liked him a lot or not. Just a date.
Amelia Jesse Jones
Sisters annoy, interfere, criticize. Indulge in monumental sulks, in huffs, in snide remarks. Borrow. Break. Monopolize the bathroom. Are always underfoot. But if catastrophe should strike, sisters are there. Defending you against all comers. ~Pam Brown
At 20 years old, Ameila Jones is the girl who has everything except for what she really wants, the boy to share it all with. She is going to school without having to take out loans, which she will pay for long into the distant future. She can speak fairly fluently two foreign languages and for these languages is able to study abroad and devote four months to each so as to make her fluency better. She has many classmates who could kill to have her life even with the boy missing from the picture. Amelia is a junior in college and spending her year in Europe. A semester in Cadiz, Spain studying the language and literature and a semester in Aix-en-Provence, France again studying the language but instead of literature she will be studying cinema history. She is enjoying her semester in Spain so very much but she keeps being reminding of the things that she is missing at home and wishes that she were with the people she loves right now both at school and at home.
She has a best friend, Joshua, who had been a friend since the elementary school bus days, whom she just realized about a year ago that she has feelings for but nothing happened between them because he left for Afghanistan in October and did not want anything to happen. She spent time with him over the summer and tried to figure out what to do as she had not directly told him that she liked him. She ended up chickening out every time and so when he left for training in the middle of August, she still had yet to figure things out with him. She decided that she would not wait for him for the year that he was going to be gone but she was also not going to be looking for someone to take the spot of boy or man in her life. She was going to just be and enjoy being single, work on finding herself. It had been a year that she had been single now but she had not been single much in the years leading up to this one. It was time she took a bit of time for herself.
August
“Sister is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship.” – Margaret Mead
Tatiana and Amelia Jones are just two ordinary girls much like the rest of the Midwest girls of the United States. Always listened to their mom and did not talk back and enjoyed hanging out with friends but not necessarily going anywhere. Bonfires were one of their favorite pastimes. They were always enjoying each other’s company. An outsider would assume these two were best friends and had been for a long time. What the outsider would be shocked to learn after stating this observation is that the two are actually sisters. Tatiana being the younger one by two years although she is taller by multiple inches and by default then Amelia the shorter and older one. Another fact the outsider would learn is that they have not always been as close as they are today. In fact, they once were at each other’s throats day and night to the point where their parents just got sick of it and would separate them to different areas of the house until they could treat each other nicely. The outsider at this point would be completely astounded and not know what to do or say, except for to just go on his/her way because he/she did not want to be made to look stupid again.
These two have been best friends for the past couple of years now but sisters for over eighteen years. In their first five and a half years of sisterhood the two were unstoppable and inseparable, it was hard to find one without the other. Anything Amelia did, Tatiana was most likely right behind her ready to try it as well and ending up doing it way better with more grace. They played with each other, helped each other, and loved each other; everything was with the other one. They had a built in best friend right in the house and for a year or so right in the same room and their mom loved every minute of it, because she had not had a sister and knew that she had always been missing that sister bond but now she got to watch one form first hand. The favorite story to tell of the two of them that their mom has is of a time when the family (pre-little bother) had taken a trip out to California and was headed down to the beach. The girls were walking ahead of their parents and one of them got a side ache. The other said, “here I will help you” and put her arm around the other one. There is a picture documenting this moment and it has been a popular picture ever since. Amelia even gave Tatiana a copy of it in a best friends frame for her eighteenth birthday, intending for her to take it to college with her as the start of her photo collection.
Tatiana and Amelia spent their last month together before they both started new adventures, going in opposite directions from home, hanging out and taking part in their favorite activities whatever those may be. Amelia did the training for lifeguarding at the pool for a week of six to seven hour days and Tatiana did training for a half marathon, which meant a minimum of a half hour of running a day. The family also spent as much time together as possible. Eating dinners together, mom had always cooked dinner for a family dinner every night as the kids were growing up so this was no different from the last twenty years and going to movies at the nearby discount theater were the two most popular options. Watching movies at home (they have a subscription to Netflix) and going for walks or bike rides (exercise is a must in the USA to avoid being a part of the statistic) as well as just sitting around and talking at all hours of the night.
The family was split the last full week of August when Tatiana and their parents, Thomas and Jackie, had to go to California to move her into school. The departure was hard and it left Amelia at home with the girls little brother, Michael. They were going to be at home by themselves for four days. This was the first time their parents had left them home alone for longer than a few hours. Luckily one set of grandparents lived only ten minutes away. The two spent lots of time at their grandparent’s house and went out to eat with them two times that week. They were spoiled rotten by their grandparents as they always are. When Thomas and Jackie got back early in the morning of the same day that Amelia was leaving for Spain, they got to spend a few hours with her before they had to head down to the airport to send her on her way.
As Amelia walked through security, Jackie yelled her name because she thought that she was going to walk away without waving good-bye. This was the truth but that was because Amelia was fighting the tears that she did not want to shed. But she waved as her mom wanted her to and then walked to her gate after getting herself a smoothie at Caribou Coffee Shop. There she talked with her friend Chelsea until it was time to get on the plane.
A phone conversation after the split went a little something like this. Amelia asked, “Why did you have to call me back at security?”
“Because I thought you were going to leave without waving good bye and your dad said that he thought you were and he was choked up about it,” Jackie replied.
“Well, I was trying to avoid crying and you made it just that much harder. Thanks,” Amelia jabbed. She was now in the Dallas airport waiting for her nine hour flight to Madrid trying hard as she could not to cry again.
Jackie answered, “I am sorry honey. We are taking it just as hard as you are though. We have to let our oldest baby go across an ocean without us today. Keep that in mind as you are having a hard time. You are not alone in this. I love you and am very proud of you. We all are. I cannot wait to see you in four months. You will be a whole new young woman.”
“I know mom, but I will also be the same one too. It will be my views on life and the way I look at the world that will have changed. It will not be whom I am deep inside. That will be the same as it has always been. It two years of college has not changed that then nothing ever will. I can promise you that. I will be more grown up and self sufficient but that needs to happen. I love you too and miss you already. This four months will go faster than we know,” Amelia reassured her mom.
TATIANA LINDA JONES
September
She is your mirror, shining back at you with a world of possibilities. She is your witness, who sees you at your worst and best, and loves you anyway. She is your partner in crime, your midnight companion, someone who knows when you are smiling, even in the dark. She is your teacher, your defense attorney, your personal press agent, even your shrink. Some days, she's the reason you wish you were an only child. ~Barbara Alpert
She met her roommates on that first day of college and was excited about the prospects for the year to come but she soon found out one of them is shyer than herself and the other two are partiers. Out until all hours every night of the weekend minimum. The first week was good though, she and her roomies spent tons of time together playing games and watching movies. They almost always had someone in their room hanging out and most of the time these people were of the male persuasion. Then came the first weekend on campus and she found herself alone when all she could do was sit there and wonder what she should do as she did not want to be sitting in the room by herself but yet because of her morals she could not rationalize going to the parties with her roomies even if it did mean that they then had a safe way to get back to the dorms so that no one had to drink and drive or just sleep on the floor to sleep off the drunkenness. She did meet some friends once classes started but they all weren’t on campus on the weekends. Her best friend thus far was a commuter and thusly was never available to hang out and do things during the week or otherwise. The other good friend she made was her neighbor, which made him very easy to get a hold of except for the fact that he went home on every weekend because he had decided that nothing good ever happened on the weekends at the school. This decision was made before he had even spent one weekend on campus however so Tatiana and her roommates convinced him to stay for a weekend and try it out. Then if he still thought that nothing ever happened on the weekends she would let him go home all the time. She just knew that if he would give in to all the persuasion of these four girls that he would realize that what they were saying was true. If he did not then she was going to be shocked. She would spend all weekend with him if only he were to be on campus for it.
Her grandparents had a house a few hours from the campus that they wintered in. She was excited about this fact because it meant that she could get away for the weekend to this house if she wanted to. She had always loved going to the house when she was younger because it meant endless days at the beach; just relaxing in the waves or laying on the beach or her personal favorite going down to the rocks and shelling. Also this friend lived very near there so he could give her a ride to the house if she wanted. Mom and dad had taught her how to hook up the battery of the car so that she could get herself around the city if and when she went down there. He surfed at the beach near the house so she could go to the beach with him and watch him surf. She also hoped that if she did go down to Dana Point area with him he would offer to teach her how to surf. One of her goals was to learn to surf by the time she graduated from college. She liked this thought of getting to spend some time with him away from campus but then again she also just liked him in general. She thought and hoped he might be feeling the same. In fact she was almost positive that he was feeling the same way since when she had given him her cell phone number he had said that he put her in his phone as Tatiana, your favorite person ever. She really hoped that something would come of this. He never used her number though or at least not yet. She had invited him to come to meals with them multiple times and told him to just send them a text if he wanted to grab a meal or something but it never happened. He seemed to just think that it was a joke or something that they were not serious about wanting to hang out with him, be friends with him. He enjoyed eating meals by his lonesome for some random reason thus he never invited her or her roommates to join him. She just couldn’t figure out what was going on with that. He was homecoming king from home as well as a total jock so thus probably popular back in his high school days. Why would he want to be all alone now, when he had been surrounded by people for all that time. What Tati would have given to have that kind of group back in high school. Did not matter though. She had it now.
She was a runner and thrower for the Track team in high school and now she would be as well in college. John, her neighbor and friend, was also going to be a runner on the team. They had started running together a lot just to keep in shape and that was like 30 to 40 miles a week often times. This was ok with her she loved it plus if kept dad from complaining that she was running off campus by herself. He could be such a worrywart sometimes. She was old enough to take care of herself now. She did leave over a thousand miles from home. She was in the best shape she had ever been in. She was insane in the eyes of all her family and friends but she enjoyed it and wanted to be able to eat what she wanted when she wanted which meant working out…something her sister had yet to figure out. She and John had lots of fun running and hanging out all the time but as far as she could tell he was not interested in her the same way she was in him. This was a big disappointment but it was one that she was used to because it was the same thing that had happened with every boy that she had ever been interested in back home for the past 8 years of her life.
She wanted to go to church every Sunday because it was good for her spiritual growth as well as it relaxed her and allowed her to release a little stress. There was a service on Sunday nights on campus and she went to it every week with out fail. John went with her because he was back on campus already at that point and wanted to go as well. One week the service was cancelled so they walked to the nearest supermarket and bought bread and grape juice so as to have communion and their own little church service.
The service that they held themselves was the best that she had ever been to. They opened by singing one of her favorite worship songs that she had on her iTunes, thanks to Amelia. Then they did a reading from the book of Psalms, again one of her favorite passages the number 13. After that they did a “sermon” which consisted of them each sharing something that they had been deeply afraid of coming into college and if they were still afraid of it or not. The things that were shared there were deep actually well thought out fears. Neither of them was afraid to share things with the other. It was a relationship that was way deeper than anything anyone ever has in high school, but it did not scare either of them. After the sermon and the reading of a chapter from the book of John…number 3 because they are cool like that, they sang some more worship songs, said the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostle’s Creed before giving each other communion. Then they blessed each other sang a few more songs and ended the service. They then proceeded to watch a movie together before having to go back to the real world where homework was waiting.
Never in a million years had she dreamed that she would have friends who wanted to do things like this with her nor friends who would actually do this even if they had that want. It was the moments like this that she was absolutely and totally at peace with her new life at the school in this new state.
October
A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life. ~ Isadora James
She was excited to join the intramurals in college because it was sports with out all of the pressure. Thus, she had joined the intramural soccer league. It is coed and she is one of three girls on the team but one of two that actually show up for all of the games. She loves it and she gets to play goalie again so that makes things even more ideal. She played in the games all the time and she continued to win them with the help of her teammates. She had really impressed the boys who thought she was an amazing goalie for some reason that she could not comprehend. All she knew was that it really helped to look good when your defense rarely let the ball past them but she liked that they thought she was good. Now if only one of them would think she was cute and funny as well…now that would be a really good thing. She’s going to keep praying for that. She knows it will happen one day. She will have her prince charming some day she just has to keep up her hopes until then. She knows that he sister is in the same boat. She has talked to her about it many a day but at least Amelia has had boyfriends. Sure most of them have been dinks but at least they were boyfriends. She has been kissed, unlike Tati. That was the big thing for her, not having been kissed. Being sixteen and having never been kissed is a big deal…you know the whole sweet sixteen thing but being almost nineteen and still having it be true maybe not so much.
The day that the boys told her how good they thought she was she had a long conversation with one of them. “Hey Tati!” The boy yelled.
“Huh? Oh hey. What’s up?” Tati responded, confused.
He explained, “Just wanted to let you know that I thought that you were really good out there tonight. I have never seen a girl play like that, especially one that has not been on the official school team for a couple of years. You really made an impression us guys. Just thought you would like to know that. Great game.”
“Thanks. You played really well too. I am glad that I get the chance to play soccer again no less play goalie again. It’s been too long. I am sad that I quit in high school now. I had forgotten how big of a rush I get,” she shyly replied.
“Hahaha…I always do. Well I have to go. Test tomorrow, but honestly GREAT game, girl. I cannot wait to see how you play next time,” He said as he grabbed his stuff and headed for the door.
“Ok. Bye. See you later. Good luck on your test,” she answered.
He smiled and laughed. “See you around Tati,” he said with a wink. Could this be the boy she was looking for? The one that would finally change all these things that had yet to come true? Please oh please let it be, but wait she did not even know his name. Oh great. How was she supposed to add him on facebook and of course get to know him if she did not even know his name. Gah. How could she have been so stupid? Oh well. She would see him at the next game. They were on the same team after all. She would just have to pay better attention to detail next time around as well as not let herself get so flustered.
She had gotten to play in all the games so far and she had yet to lose a game for the team. Which meant she was continuing to impress the boys with her athletic abilities. This was so not what she had originally planned to do gosh darn it all. She was supposed to be playing the sports to meet the boys so that they could become possible love interests not so that she could make a bunch of guy friends who think of her as another one of the guys. Why did she always manage to mess this up? Oh well, not just was it all the games that she played in but also the entire duration of each game because the rules of the league were that at least two girls had to be on the floor at a time for the duration of the game. She was very excited about the prospects for the rest of the season and she was very proud to be the only goalie they ever put in!
Then during warm ups before one of the games, the strongest kicker on the team kicked a goal on her and she hurt her wrist but she shook it off and kept going. Not wanting to let it affect her as she had done so many times before as well. An injury at the beginning of a game was not important; it could wait until the end of the game to get dealt with. She had to play, it was either that or her team was going to have to forfeit. There was only one other girl there…she did not want to have to have them forfeit just because her wrist her. However she was still in tons of pain the next morning, so she decided that she would go to the trainer that afternoon after her classes to get it checked out. The trainer was pretty sure it was nothing and that she just needed to rest it and then it would get better. Tatiana being very sure that something had to be wrong other than just an internal bruise and a slight sprain decided that since she had to see a orthopedic specialist for track the next day anyway she would just ask the doctor to take a look at it. She did and the doctor said that it didn’t seem to be broken but there was always a possibility because there is a bone that could be broken, which would be very dangerous if not caught and very difficult to see.
So she went and had some x-rays taken. These did not show that the bone was broken so the doctor was called upon again. He said, “This bone if broken oftentimes does not show up on the x-rays as broken.”
Tatiana replied, “Well, this hurts so bad that it has to be something more wrong than just a minor injury that will heal itself in a few days.”
“Well we’ll set up an appointment with a specialist for you and you can talk to him or her about what the options are for figuring out what is going on and how to correct it once we figure out what is going on,” the doctor replied.
The appointment that the doctor made was not until the next week, which was not going to help anything. She was in pain and freaking out because of the issues that the doctor said it could cause. She needed to go in now not then. She called her mom and told her what was going on. Now her mom being unable to get there to comfort her and help with the situation felt really bad but did the next best thing she could. She called the office of this specialist and got her an appointment with a hand specialist instead of just a general specialist for that very day. Things were going to get taken care of in time for Tati (as her closest friends and family called her) to play in her soccer game on Sunday night…or so she hoped.
After that appointment she had ended up having to miss a bunch of classes and had to race to make it to her chemistry test. The doctor did some more looking at the x-rays as well as did some stress tests on the wrist to see what could be found out. From the results of all of this it was decided that there was not a break, at least not that was any way detectable so Tati ended up in a brace which she would wear for a few days and if it was still hurting go back in to figure out what needed to be done at that point. This meant that she could play in her game and probably even participate in the first track practice on Monday.
November
Sisters know the secrets inside each other's little girl hearts ... even when they're all grown up. ~Laura Ramirez
She got to practice at the first day of track and she got to start learning a new throw as well as perfecting the throws she has been doing since freshmen year of high school!! She was absolutely in love with college for multiple reasons. Everything just kept getting better and better. She only wished that she were closer to home sometimes so that she could share everything with everyone back there…but only sometimes. She loved being this far from home, she could be whoever she wanted to be and there was no one from back home who could say wait this is not you. She had talked to the coach about running some races this year and he had told her that it probably would not happen as her times were to slow. Well this is because the times that she had given him were from when she was running maybe one or two miles a day not now that she was running a minimum of thirty miles a week. She would show him and she would get to run that steeplechase…just you wait and see. That was her goal for the year and it had been a life long dream since she had learned that it existed.
She and her running buddy, John, would just have to keep training as much as they could. Not only would it help her get into better and better shape but also those runs gave them time to talk and that made their friendship stronger. John gave her hope in the male gender again and she loved him for that. He was the older brother she had never had but had always dreamed of. Yes she had a little brother, named Michael Francis Jones, who was now taller than she was and quickly on his was to being stronger as well but it is just not the same as much as he might want it to be. All through high school he was just this little weakling who would not have been able to do anything in the way of defending her. John was fulfilling that dream and filling the hole, which was just waiting to be filled. She hoped that he may become more some day and maybe fill another hole as well, but she was fine with allowing him to be a best friend and big brother figure for the moment. They were all just settling in to the routine of college still, she understood that. Significant others could wait until they had all figured out how this college thing worked. Maybe next semester her flirting skills would be better and she would catch some guys attention…maybe. Where is Amelia when she needs help with things like this? Honestly why did it have to be now that she jetted off to Europe for the year. At the time when Tati could have really used her here in the United States for that big sister advice that was supposed to be so helpful and that was world famous in multiple Hollywood movies.
She just continued to hope and wish and dream and pray that one day she would finally get the chance to feel what she had watched all the leading ladies in her favorite movies and books experience over the years. Especially a chance to be fought over like Bella Swan was in her favorite series, Twilight; she was a fan before it was cool just so everyone knows and she can make it clear. To have two beautiful men such as Jacob and Edward wanting to win her heart would be absolutely amazing and would do great things for her self-esteem to boot. This she knew and was very excited about but she would continue to wait. After all waiting was what she was good at, that and being in the background of everything, silently hoping that at some point the boys would wake up and realize that they didn’t want those blonde bimbos anymore but rather someone with substance.
She knew that she was worth it; she knew that she was pretty, but she also knew that she was intelligent and that was something that most males were intimidated by. A smart girl was something that all boys were afraid of. The males of our species have egos that are very easily bruised and any small thing that shows a female as better than them is something that they want to stay away from. Tati understood this and had accepted it years ago…she had no other choice but she couldn’t help but hope that there was someone out there that would be able to get past that weak ego and take a few hits to get to know her and maybe just maybe like her as more than a friend. Alas this had yet to happen and she was now 18 seriously not many girls at the age of 18 can say they have never been in a relationship no less that they have still yet to be kissed in today’s society at least. How embarrassing.
She was an athlete by nature. Her dad had been a three-sport athlete so she came by her athleticism naturally and had never really has to work hard at being good and one of the best. She had never spent a school year without at least one sport. She was going to continue this trend in college. She had one sport instead of her usual three but it would take up the equivalent of two sports seasons or more. This was the first time she had been able to start the school year just relaxing and enjoying life…haha yeah right. There’s this thing called homework, you may have heard of it, which consumed all the time that would have been spent at practices and competitions in other years. She literally spent all day one Tuesday when she did not have class reading for her chemistry class the next day. Is that really necessary? Students should get to have fun sometimes too. That is what part of being in college is all about. Those last four years of freedom before you have to go out into the real world.
Life was great she had enough to do that she was never bored and never had time to just sit there and think about things thusly never had a chance to be homesick. The only thing that she was very upset about was the fact that her older sister was not available to talk to whenever she wanted her. Amelia would have been a great deal of help to Tati as she was adjusting to college life and the partying that went on around her as Amelia had very similar morals to Tati which did not include partying all the time. However as Amelia is a double foreign language major she is studying abroad all year…great for her, not so good for the rest of the people in her life. Thus when Tati wanted to talk to her big sister she had to write on her facebook wall or send her an email or gasp…skype her…what actually get on something face to face…what would one want to do that for. Tati was not a fan or skype mostly because she had not been able to figure out how to do things that first night when she downloaded it to her computer. It was not the ideal situation for someone who wanted to talk to someone else to get a little piece of mind about the situation at hand but it was the way it had to be for the time being. It was only a little over a month until they would be able to sit in the same room and talk for hours on end! That was something that she could definitely look forward too.
She was able to get through it though and tell her sister of her triumph after the fact and make her feel good by telling her that it was her that she had wanted to talk to in her time of need. They had been really close when they were younger but that had fallen apart when Amelia had started kindergarten at age 5. This friendship had become very weak and stayed that way until the end of Amelia’s senior year of high school when the two girls all of a sudden started to gain a better appreciation of each other again. So by the time Tati went off to college exactly two years later, the two were tighter than they had been in years and the separation was a hardship not only for them but also for the whole family.
December
“There can be no situation in life in which the conversation of my dear sister will not administer some comfort to me.” – Mary Worley Montagu
Tati though not on the other side of the ocean was having just as many problems with the separation as her sister was. She had so many times wanted to pick up the phone and call her big sister to get some peace of mind about this or that but she could not and it was one of the hardest things she had ever had to deal with. It was frustrating to not be able to do so when everyone else could with his or her older brothers and sisters. She had been able to get through it and understand things herself but that sister contact might have been nice. It was just something about talking to your sister that made you feel better…Tati could not explain it though she tried to many times. She decided that she wanted to work on the relationship she and her sister had but at the same time she knew that she needed to work on the here and now as well. That meant that working on the relationship she and Amelia had was going to have to take a back burner. It did not mean that she would not be working on it but it just meant that it was not the most important thing on her plate. It was not something that would affect life immanently.
The two sisters did SKYPE one day however and it was a good time to be had by all, after all of the frustration of getting the connection to stay connected that is. The conversation was between them and their mom. The only thing about that was then you could not see each other, when it was three people instead of two. That was a sad fact of the matter but that did not matter to the three Jones women. They were just happy to talk to each other and all at the same time not in many separate conversations. There was no misinterpretation and no gossiping about each other either. That was another nice thing. The conversation went as follows.
Tati: Hey guys. I only have a little bit but I am glad to get to talk to you both. Wish I could see you though.
Amelia: Yeah. That would be nice to get to see each other. I thought you could. Oh well. Talking and hearing each other’s voices is just as nice at this point. It has been three months now. Geeze how did we let it go this long?
Jackie: Oh my girls. How nice it is to hear both of your voices at the same time. I have been missing this so. I love you both so much. But I think that I will hang up so that you can see each other and then I will talk to you both later.
Tati: No mom really it is ok. We have gone this long we can make it longer. I honestly have to be productive here soon. Right Amelia?
Amelia: Yeah definitely mom. It is way better with the three of us talking because we cannot do this as often as just two of us talking. We both love you too mom.
Jackie: ok then I will continue in the conversation. What is new in your lives?
Amelia: well I just finished my second presentation for m grammar class so now all I have left to do is study for my final and the regular day to day homework. Which is nice. I am also all done with big things in my literature class as well as in my society class. All that is left to do is study study study. Yay!!
Tati: Pretty much the same as Amelia only I have one more paper to finish and then it is study study study until it is time to come home. Whoo hooo. Cannot wait.
Amelia: Welcome to your first set of college level finals. It is such a party…not. Do not worry though. It will not kill you. It will just stress you out and make you wish you were done with school already but that will make coming home that much more fun and relaxing. You have almost crossed the finish line…keep hanging in there with your head down. The race is going to be your best yet because you have nothing else to base it off of!!
Jackie: Wow Amelia, I did not realize you had that kind of advice in you. I am very impressed. I am proud of both of you. I know I say it all the time but it is the truth. I cannot believe how much the two of you have grown up in the past four months. Your dad and I both cannot wait to see you when your planes land in the mother state of Minnesota. We will be waiting there to give you huge hugs!! Good to hear that you are both all caught up on your papers and projects as well as the pidily little busy work that teachers so lovingly use to fill time…I have to admit that I was one of those teachers to give out busy work when I was teaching before you were born.
Tati: Thanks mom. We love you and are proud of you too. You have dealt with those boys very well, while we have been gone. I do not think that I could have done it. They are just too something. Congratulations. You have made it through almost one semester of all boyness.
Amelia: She is right mom. Everything that you can say to us we can say right back to you because of everything you put up with at home. Those boys cannot be easy to deal with on a daily basis without any girl time. You are the one that people should be proud of. I bet you can really understand what Grandma went through when you left for college now. Probably appreciate her a lot more now too.
Jackie: You are perfectly correct girls. I should be proud of myself just as much as I am of you two. But that is what part of being a mom is. Not realizing the things you should see in yourself because you are so absorbed in the lives and achievements of your children. I love you both and am so proud of you both. Are there any boys? New friends, I do not know about? I want to know these things. I do not get to see you every day to find out anymore. I know it is not any of my business any more. You are adults after all and I really do not want to be like the mom from Brothers and Sisters but I want to be involved in your lives still and all I know how to do is ask the questions and hope that you both will respond with truthful answers; which I have never known either of you to lie about such things.
Tati: No mom. There is nothing new to report from the last time we talked. I am still flirting with the same guys I was then and am still just getting to know the same people. Soccer has some promising prospects of new friends and boys but has yet to show me the fruits of that labor. I will tell you when there is something to report. Amelia on the other hand may just hide it like she did with Joe in eighth grade…
Amelia: I did not hide it. I just did not say anything about it because I knew that it would not be a favored choice at our house. That and I was not sure if I had made the right choice or not. But Tati is wrong. I have told you everything about pretty much everything since the day I landed in Alicante. There is nothing new to report however on the boy front or other wise. Adrienne is not speaking to me for who knows what reason again but honestly I could not care less at this point. Samantha and I just got back from a fantastic five days in Madrid during which we also got to visit Toledo, Segovia, and Salamanca. It was wonderful. I just know she and I will stay in contact long after the end of this semester. It is only 13 days until we are all back under the same roof again though!!! I cannot wait even if it does mean I have to leave this warm paradise to return to the cold and snow.
Jackie: I honestly cannot wait for that day as much as I know that it will be hard to lose you two again after the six weeks are up.
Tati: Mom you are not losing us. You are letting us go so that we can grow up and make you proud in bigger ways. If you did not do that we would just stay in the house and never do anything great ever again. We would just be reliving our high school days over and over with no where to go but backward.
Jackie: I know and your father keeps reminding me of that too but it is hard to remember sometimes. Especially when I have been so used to having all three of you around to be proud of for almost fifteen years now. Can you believe your brother is almost fifteen? Only five days now. I am so glad he will not have his permit until summer.
Amelia: Mom. You have so much to be proud of and so much to look forward to in each of our lives. You will never be cut out of them. You and dad have done such a good job raising us and we will never want you guys out of our lives I can promise you that. That is a scary thought that Michael will be fifteen in a few short days. Gosh, I feel like it was just yesterday that he was following Laura and me around the house with a big crush on her. Oh the memories I can come up with sometimes. He will hate us at his wedding. I cannot wait to share the stories I have, oh and the photos…do not even get me started.
Tati: Oh my gosh. I had totally forgotten about his crush on Laura. That was definitely the first crush he had on one of our friends but definitely not the last. Those were some fun times. I cannot believe it has been fifteen years since he was born and I was mad that he was a boy. How times change and how time flies.
Jackie: That it does…and it does not ever slow down, take it from me. It just keeps going by faster and faster. One day you are marrying the love of your life and the next you are watching your youngest child with that love of your life go off to his or her first day of high school. It is insane how short an amount of time it feels like this last twenty seven years have been. Please hear this one thing if you do not hear any advice I give you for the rest of your lives. Cherish every moment that God gives you and never take anything especially each other for granted because time is going to be against you before you know it and you cannot get any of that back ever.
Tati + Amelia: We will not. We promise.
Tati: Sorry guys but I have to go. Homework has been piling up and today is my day to play catch up and get everything done so that I can have maybe a little fun this weekend. John is actually staying on campus for once!! I love you both and cannot wait until I can give you both hugs!
Jackie: I love you Tati. Enjoy your homework and your weekend with John. Hope that you can get all you need to done. I know how much fun it is to be able to actually relax during the weekend like the reasoning for it is. Talk to you later.
Tati: Thanks mom. Talk to you later.
Amelia: Love you tati. Cannot wait to see you and give you a hug either. Good luck with the homework and make sure you flirt with that boy. Something will come of that relationship yet just you watch, even if it takes until the end of the year to do so.
Tati: Thanks Amelia. I will make sure to do some flirting for you. See you both in a few short weeks.
Amelia + Jackie: Bye. See you soon. Love you.
In the past few days she had not only gotten to know John better but she had also met new people and taken care of her wrist situation all on her own. Amelia was not the only one doing some growing up. She was in love with the feeling of accomplishment that she felt and she knew that it was going to continue throughout her life. All she had to do was continue to do what she felt was right and rely on God with all her heart soul and mind. She knew that these two things she could do. John had really helped with getting through the things she had had to do lately. She was glad she had him and that he had been there when ever she needed him so far this year but at the same time it was nice to be meeting new people finally. Hopefully these people would turn out to be non-partiers as well. They were athletes after all.
Life was going well. That was for sure. She only had about two weeks of classes and finals now and then it was home for a few weeks of family time and relaxation before the start of spring semester and track season. They were going to fly by Tati knew that. She just was not sure how fast. Class, after class and day after day that was how life was going during this month of December. With homework, runs and church thrown in there with the odd soccer game. Life was still good. She was hanging out with John just as much as when the semester started if not more. They had finally gotten him to stay on campus during the weekends…at least once in a while.
This past weekend was one such weekend and everything was great. They went to the beach, Tati, John and her roommate, Lisa. It was a little cold to be in the water but they did not mind. John was teaching her how to surf. It was great. She was not very good yet but she could get up on a wave and ride it for a few feet. She was pretty sure that had to be a record or something. They were having a blast and spent the whole day there on Saturday. Then that night they all had pizza for dinner in the room while watching random movies on Netflix Instant Watch. The conversations they had were very interesting. One was all about the “Harry Potter” movies vs the books. Tati said, “Guys we should definitely do a Harry Potter marathon before we go see the movie of the first half of the seventh book. I think it is going to be really good. There cannot be much they cut out considering they are making it into two movies instead of just one two hour film.”
John groaned and replied, “Oh no anything but that movie. Count me out of that one please and thank you. I cannot stand to watch those terrible excuses for movies. The director totally butchered the books when writing the script. Quidditch is only in each movie like once or twice total when it was the focus of the first four chapters of the book one time. No thank you, I will definitely find something else to do that night or day depending on when you decide to go. I can save tons of money by just waiting until it comes out on DVD to see it.”
“I am not going to say that they are that bad and I do love them as well as the books but I can see your point John. Tati, why don’t we just watch them one weekend when John is gone? Then we have stuff to do and we still get to have time with John. We did have to do lots of coaxing to get him to stay on campus every once in a while. I would hate to see that stop just because we decide to do something rather than hang out with him,” Lisa answered trying to be the peacemaker.
“I guess,” whispered Tati, “I don’t really see what the big deal is. It was just an idea and I know that the books are better. I have complained about the same things before but I just think that it is a way easier way to remind yourself of the rough outline that is the series before watching the movie than trying to read all of the books in the next week or so.”
“I totally see your point. Maybe we should but can we split them up a bit so that it isn’t a total Harry Potter engulfed day or week or weekend or whatever?” John asked.
Tori replied, “Oh definitely. I was not even thinking that we might possibly watch all six in a row. That would be murder no matter if you like the movies a lot or not. What do you think Lisa?”
Lisa never wanting to create a problem answered meekly, “That works for me.”
So it was decided they would watch the movies over the course of a week or so and then go and watch Harry Potter 7A together before they all went home for Christmas. Tati was the most excited about his because she had been dying to see the new one more than anything. It had been out for almost a month now after all. So in between the classes and homework and studying for finals the threesome went to the theater and saw the movie of which they all agreed was one of the best ones yet.
January
A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves—a special kind of double. ~Toni Morrison
February
A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost. ~Marion C. Garretty
March
If you don't understand how a woman could both love her sister dearly and want to wring her neck at the same time, then you were probably an only child. ~Linda Sunshine
April
A sister is always there to defend you no matter what. ~Felicity Martin
May
What sets sisters apart from brothers and also from friends is a very intimate meshing of heart, soul and the mystical cords of memory. ~Carol Saline
AMELIA JESSE JONES
September
Husbands come and go; children come and eventually they go. Friends grow up and move away. But the one thing that's never lost is your sister. ~ Gail Sheeny
Amelia is not the most popular girl ever and she has accepted this. She is not a partier never will be and not a big drinker either though this has the possibility of changing, she has morals stronger than most other people in the world her age. These three things put her on the outside of most groups both in social situations at home and at school and now apparently abroad. She was hoping that would be different here in Spain but apparently she was wrong. The majority of the group took the first chance they had to go out for drinks even though they were all jet-lagged but she stayed home beause she was tired and wanted to get some sleep before having to sit through hours of orientation the next couple of days. She did go out the next night but she did not have anything to drink. Because of this outsiderness she has found only two friends in this new country; a girl in her program named Eloise and a girl from Canada named Katrina.
Eloise is a great friend but she can be a bit standoffish sometimes. She and Amelia hit it off on the second day of the orientation and stuck together because they were the only ones that were not out seven days of the week. They walked around town exploring their new home, they climbed the biggest hill in the city just for exercise and the view was just an added bonus and went and sat on the beautiful beach enjoying the gorgeous sunshine. Anything to get out of the house and enjoy the gorgeous summer like weather that the city was providing them in September!! Class was only 4 hours out of the day and there was barely any homework since it was only one class for all of those hours. They very quickly became close and were able to talk to each other about anything and everything. The only issue was that Eloise does not want to travel and being Amelia’s only friend that meant Amelia did not have anyone to travel with. Eloise also had a mind of her own and was African American, now do not get me wrong, Amelia is not racist nor am I but there were cultural differences between Eloise’s California African American upbringing and Amelia’s Minnesota white Caucasian upbringing that were hard to overcome.
Amelia found out about trips through the university that she could go on, so she did. The first one was to Malaga, another coastal town nearby. She met many new people on this trip and really enjoyed the trip as a whole even if she was sick for most of it. One of the people she met was Katrina, a Canadian girl who was in a similar place as Amelia only she was not in a private program so she had a better chance at meeting more young people from all over the world. Katrina and Joelle hung out the entire weekend except for when their nationalities separated them to tour the one museum they went to. They continued to hang out as the weeks progressed, becoming better and better friends.
October
"There's a special kind of freedom sisters enjoy. Freedom to share innermost thoughts, to ask a favor, to show their true feelings. The freedom to simply be themselves." ~ Author Unknown
Amelia was having a hard time because of the friends issue already and then she started to have problems with her host family as well. Her madre insisted that she needed to eat way more than she would have ever eaten for like five meals at home for just one meal and when she did not eat all the food that was on her plate her madre assumed that she didn’t like it. Amelia had talked to the housing director of the program and she had said to tell the family that she was not accustomed to eating so much but that everything was great. She did this and the outcome was exactly opposite of what she wanted. They just started trying to feed her the same amount more than twice a day. This was not the case at all it was simply that Joelle did not have the room in her stomach to eat it and the fruit that came afterwards. Her padres also seemed to think that it was a must to go out and party all the time. She thought that she had explained that she didn’t like it well enough that they would understand but apparently not as they were still insisting she should be going out. Her padre even joked oftentimes about going to the barrio with her. Now that would have been something to see. Wow…can you imagine…a sixty something year old man with a twenty year old woman in the barrio…the night scene for young people. The gossip that would cause.
Eventually she realized she had to admit that she was not going to find anyone to go with her somewhere during Fall Break at least not that was going to want to go places that she was not going during her Spring Break with her French class friend, Amanda. So she talked to her mom and said mom I need you to come and travel with me. I need you to be my mom but also a friend. Her mom had already told her she would be happy to come in fact would love to come but she did not want to come because she did not want Amelia to think that she thought she needed her. Thus why Amelia had to say that she wanted and needed her mom there. That is all it took the next day, her mom had booked her plane ticket and had found a cruise for the two of them to go on. Two weeks later they were on a train from Cadiz to Barcelona ready for a week and a half of mommy daughter time. They spent the night in a pension, which was right on the main street of Barcelona, la Rambla, and then spent the next day on the hop on hop off bus around the city. They hit all the major sights of the city in less than 7 hours. Their favorite sight in the city had to be la Temple de la Sagrada Familia, a cathedral designed by Antonio Gaudi a famous architect from Barcelona. The cathedral was started in the late 1800’s but is still unfinished today and is not expected to be finished until 2030 at the earliest. Their second favorite was the Park Guell which is another Gaudi creation only this is all outside and blended in with nature in what was supposed to be like a park out of London, England.
Amelia and her mom really enjoyed their time together. Both were thoroughly content with what they had done and did not feel like there was anything that could have been missing. They both will remember the happiness and the wonderful moments that they had for the rest of their lives. The day in Marseille, France during which, they had no idea what to do and ended up riding a Disneyland like train to the Notre Dame de la Garde, they also got to see Chateau d’If which is the location where the Count of Monte Cristo is supposed to take place. The days in Italy where neither could speak the language nor had any idea what was going on which included the tour of Pomeii (while in the port of Naples, Italy) and the walking tour of Palermo, Sicily, Italy. The day in Tunis, Tunisia where they got a taxi tour with two of their new friends (Barbara and Alan Giblett) from Australia; they got to see famous ancient Roman ruins (Carthage) and a gorgeous fishing village (Sidi Bou Said). The day in Palma de Mallorca, Spain where they again did a taxi tour to all of the major tourist sights and then found some coca cola light for mom because she needed her caffeine fix. All of it would be remembered that was for sure. It was all well documented with photos as well because Amelia took picture after picture of everything possible. Including her mother much to Jackie’s dismay.
The dinner table at which they were seated could not have been more ideal. They had two couples that are empty nesters (One from Canada: Bob and Diane and one from Australia: Barbara and Alan) and two of ladies from Sweden (Christina and Liv). They were all extremely nice and easy to make conversation with. The wife of one of the couples even offered Amelia a job on the farm that she and her husband own…now that is not something that Amelia would every be interested in. She is so definitely not a dirt under the fingernails kind of girl. The waiter who was from Thailand was extremely cute and young and was constantly flirting with Amelia. She was flirting back but not openly enough for anything to have come of the flirtation. It was just for fun anyway. Nothing would have happened from it anyway. He was cute but they are from two completely different worlds, which would make it difficult to have a relationship that could actually go somewhere. Cultural differences are the hardest to get past though Amelia did know hot to get past them and was not one to care about the differences in fact she generally embraced and loved the differences.
Once the cruise was over Amelia and her mom went back to Cadiz where they enjoyed all the touristy things around the city as well as a day on the beach. The sun felt very good considering how cold they were in Italy the week before except for Sicily. Mom also got to meet Katrina. Amelia wanted her to meet Eloise but she could not get a hold of her to have them meet each other. Her mom stayed with her at her homestay. Her padres were ecstatic to meet her mom and often got so excited that they forgot that mom did not understand any Spanish. The time was successful and the two parted tearfully knowing that they would see each other in just a little over two months.
Amelia went back to classes in full study mode because there was only a week before midterms. She worked on papers and presentations and reading books and notes and just general studying to get things done. She could only hope that they would all pay off in the end. She got fifty pages of her Spanish novel read for her literature class in less than two days and got it all analyzed and put into an outline as well. She typed all of her notes into word documents as well. The first weekend after break she literally had no life. All she did was do homework and hang out with her family. They think that she is a boring student who does not have a life but that is her choice. She would rather be at home than out getting drunk…that is not a crime. So what she is a homebody? There are lots of those in this world. Maybe just not that study abroad in Spain apparently probably not those study abroad in general actually. Homebodies like to sit at home and hang out with family and just relax, not jet set across the world.
The week of midterms flew by quickly but the exams were frustrating because they required studying every night since there was only one a day. Amelia was honestly studying every day of the week that week (except Friday…her program does not have class on Fridays). She really enjoyed herself but it was slightly frustrating that she did not get to have any fun ever. The beauty of the exams being done is that she now did not have to study for them again until the end of the semester for the finals! If only that meant there were going to be no presentations and papers to happen in that time. That would be luck but alas no…there would be a minimum of one presentation and one paper in each class. Wonderful…just what every students favorite thing to do is.
Oh well…she is here to study not to have fun and lay on the beach every day even though that would be nice. It is what they (all the students) would ultimately like to be doing, as well as traveling to other places in Spain and Europe during their spare time. Most of them had traveled at least one or two weekends of the semester that far and they would eventually be going on trips as a program as well. Just not until November. Eloise and Amelia were becoming better friends again. They were doing two presentations together as well as going to do things such as climb the highest hill together just for exercise. This is something that both their madres thought they were nuts for doing but alas that is what they wanted to do especially since their madres are the ones that tried to shove food down their throats a minimum of three times a day, oftentimes it was more like four or five.
The weekend following midterms was Halloween weekend. This meant that on Monday it was All Saints Day and there would be no school as in Spain it is a national holiday. This was nice because it meant a four-day weekend. Amelia spent the weekend relaxing and taking time to hang out with friends. She went up to Katrina’s house and they tried out the recipes that Amelia had found on the Internet as well as went to a movie at the discount theater near the house. Then she lay on her bed and watched movies all day on Sunday to recuperate from the late night before going out for Halloween that night with some other people. The scene was extremely lame that night so they did not stay out very long at all. That was ok with her. She had not wanted to go out in the first place.
November
"Sisters are for sharing laughter and wiping tears." ~ Author Unknown
The next day she got up around eleven in the morning and got dressed at breakfast and did homework until it was time for lunch, which was pretty much all fish so she had a “special meal” of leftover pasta. This was fine with her. Noelia and Ivan her host sister and brother-in-law were there for lunch but none of the other family were. This seemed weird to Amelia because all she had ever heard about was how fiestas were days when the family was all together yet there were days where the whole family was assembled that were just normal days and today they were not.
The only thing that was missing from her host family was her siblings. She had never realized how much they were a part of her life until she left for college freshmen year and then again now she is realizing how much she takes them for granted. When all of a sudden someone who has always been there is not any more we as humans go into shock and have issues remembering how to cope without that someone or something. I have found that it is easier to live life not missing those people but cherishing the memories and remembering that you will see them again. Being sad for time unending is not the way to deal with life and you are not going to get any where by doing so. I prefer to let things fall as they may and live each day to the fullest, knowing that each day is not promised but a gift.
So many times this semester Amelia had wanted to pick up her cell phone and call her sister but she could not. It was way to expensive to do that. She would have to be ok with the writing on walls and sending emails that had sufficed for the past few years. It was only four months. They could make it. It would make the time they got to spend with each other at Christmas that much more special. She could not wait to hear all about her little sister’s experiences at college. She knew they would be great. She missed her little brother too but the bond between the two of them had never been as strong as the bond between the two girls. Amelia being a girlier girl than Tati, Tati and Michael had their sports that they bonded over as well as their hatred for most romantic things. The two had been the best of friends for years.
The family style of the Jones’ is one that is become more and more rare as the years go by. Each of the children knows how important family should be in their life and they keep it as such. This model is found very often in other parts of the world but in the United States it is a hard to find thing. Spain, Amelia had found out was a majorly family oriented and did everything based around how things were going in their family. Where we would send off our grandparents to the nursing home when they start to need around the clock care, the Spaniards take them into their home and make sacrifices to figure out how the care for them will happen.
Friends were a different story here too. Most Spaniards stay within a fifty-mile radius of where they grew up. This makes it very easy to form a group of friends as a young child and keep it through out your whole life. This is very nice for the young people of the area but for people who come into the environment later in life it is very hard because the groups are tight knit and breaking into the is almost impossible and takes tons of work. For this reason, most study abroad students never make Spanish friends and also never get to practice their Spanish with young people because they do not have the time nor the want to put forth that much effort just to have these friends for a semester.
The program tried to help this issue by supplying the option of intercambios, which are Spanish students that want to practice their English as well as help Spanish as a second language students practice their Spanish. One class period was even spent in intercambios so as to jump-start the process. This allowed the students to meet a few Spanish students but the effort to keep the relationship going was not worth it for most of them.
Amelia was in this situation. She had met a very nice girl who shared a name with her sister who she wanted to be friends with but she was not very sure she wanted to put the effort forth, so she continued to talk to her on facebook but that was as far as it ever went. Help with homework she went to Tatiana. She wondered about a cultural aspect, she went to Tatiana. It was always the same thing…write on her wall or sends her a message and get a response with in 24 hours. It was not a friendship yet it was not just a thing of the past either. Had either one wanted to get something going they could have put forth the effort and it would have gone swimmingly however neither felt that the little over two months that they would be friends were worth the effort of those first couple of weeks.
Friends and sisters have one thing in common. They do not have to be numerous as long as they are true. Amelia was dealing with that one step at a time. Sisters are not numerous for her that was for sure…she had one, Tati but she was definitely a true one. No matter how mean or neglectful she had been in other times Tati was there at the end of it still want to be just like her big sister. Then they started to get closer but she was still a little mean every once in a while but she was still there. There was never anything that could end that bond. Amelia was glad that she had that bond and felt bad for the people who never got to feel it. Then there were friends…she had two that she could really count on available to her at the moment and that was ok because she knew they were true friends ones that could possibly still be friends years from now when they were all done with school and had families of their own.
The one she wanted to be there though was her sister. Tati and she had only talked once over SKYPE since she had left and they had chatted on facebook once or twice but that was it. It was forever or at least it seemed like it was forever. She could not believe that it was that hard. She had never realized how attached she was. No one ever does until they are not around the thing they are attached too. It was just as well though; they would eventually both be living in different places with different lives. This was good practice for that. It was supposed to happen or at least that is what she was telling herself.
December
"For there is no friend like a sister, in calm or stormy weather, to cheer one on the tedious way, to fetch one if one goes astray, to lift one if one totters down, to strengthen whilst one stands." ~ Christina G. Rossetti
January
"You should never look down on a sister except to pick her up."
Author Unknown
February
"Sisters share the scent and smells - the feel of a common childhood."
Pam Brown
March
Sisters function as safety nets in a chaotic world simply by being there for each other. ~ Carol Saline
April
Of two sisters, one is always the watcher, one the dancer. ~ Louise Gluck
May
A loyal sister is worth a thousand friends. ~ Marian Eigerman
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