“Emma! Emma….Hey, Emma!”

“Guess who asked me to marry them today? No one.”

“EMMA! Why don’t you look me in the eyes or listen when I talk to you.”

These conversations in which I’m only half present in are a regular thing for me in my journalism class. Prior to beginning my senior year, I was so excited for my sister to be a freshman. It would be a great opportunity to guide her through high school and bond with her on a day to day basis one more time before I went off to college. Not only was I overjoyed for this, but I had managed to convince her to take journalism with me.

Allow me to give you a bit of background on my relationship with my sister, Ava. She and I have been inseparable since she was approximately 3 years old. The reason I can be almost precise here is because this is also around the same time she stopped constantly screaming and crying, and I stopped hating her for it. Plus, by this time, she was far old enough to walk, which meant more fun together. We grew up playing Barbies, dress up, pretend, you name it! We had wrestling matches, played tag in the store, laughed our heads off, fought a good amount, told thousands of stories, pranked each other (some of these are among the things we continue to do to this day). Ava is someone I can trust with anything and she is my favorite human being.

However, I didn’t forget to think about the consequences of being in a class together. Just like our mother still has to deal with our wrestling matches and games of tag in various shopping centers and public places, I realized that if we weren’t mature enough, our teacher would have the same fate.

Being in Mr. Korman’s journalism class for the third year in a row, I knew that I had to be careful to not let our sisterly relationship drive him crazy. While I do think that at times it may, I still feel that we both do a phenomenal job containing ourselves. Still however, I would like to apologize to Korman and to whoever else is around to hear our shenanigans.

Every day, journalism is a class that I am extremely excited for. Not only do I get to write and dive into stories taking place within our school and our local area, but I get to do so with people I absolutely adore, Ava included. When she walks into class, I light up on the inside, even though I had just seen her two hours earlier in the parking lot. She sits down, just before the bell rings, typically in a sweat after just being released from her fitness center class. She then will tend to go into a long rant about how she wasn’t given enough time to change out and get to her next class, or about a cute boy, or she might go into an extremely long story about her journey to the restroom. In any case, Ava is a definite talker, which can have its pros and cons.

Among my jobs for the newspaper, the most important ones are writing and editing pieces. While I really enjoy hearing Ava’s humorous stories and outlooks on life, there eventually comes a time where silence is required; something often quite difficult for her.

On a personal good day, I am typically able to just ignore her while I work. This doesn’t always end on a good note though, when I find out that there is a pop quiz at the end of her story. She gets very angry with me when I don’t pay attention. She also despises it when she is talking to you and you don’t look her in the eyes. This usually results in, “Emma! Why aren’t you listening to anything I say?” Which is then followed by a “If you can’t tell, Ava, I am trying to get work done here,” and so on. If things get heated enough, we will typically end the conversation with a “YOU’RE SO STUPID!” or a hitting fight; you get the picture. After this, we typically go about 5 minutes max without speaking to one another. But because our bond is so strong, not talking to one another just isn’t normal.

When I’m having a harder and more frustrating day, my Ava patience straw is significantly shorter. During these days, I am the one who gets mad and Ava gets exceedingly more annoying as the class period goes on. Take today for example, I had a lot on my mind already and I was working on editing one of the pieces we would soon be publishing and Ava would not stop talking. I had to tell her to “shut up, shut up, shut up” because she was hindering my concentration even more. After that, I got a few moments of peace. About a good 30 seconds later though, Ava’s face popped right up in front of the computer I was working at, as she slowly moved in front of me. I looked at her and her stupid grin, rolled my eyes, and went back to work. A few more seconds later, I received a text from her about something completely random.

Sometimes she reminds me of a puppy; very fun, but requiring lots of attention. However, I believe this feeling is most likely mutual. There are definitely days where I am super jazzed up, and Ava isn’t having it, and I annoy the living daylight out of her. This is just what sisters do, and in the long run, it is well worth it.

Despite the moments where we can’t stand to be around one another, I know that life would be so empty without Ava as my sister. She brings so much joy and light to everything that she does, making the occasional distractions worth it. I am proud of us for keeping a good amount of maturity in place at school while still being able to have a total blast together. Our nonsense makes the class even better than it has been in the past for me, and I love getting to hang out with her like that.

In the end, it’s the little things in life that can really have the largest benefits. When you are given opportunities like the one I was given, remember to capture the joy in each moment. Life is fast, so take time to enjoy the circumstances and people around you, even if it’s your little sister in your journalism class.