Freckles™

I'd admit that this might not the best picture we had together. There are tons of pictures of me and these two little girls with tons of expressions you would not normally thought of. But if I have to compare this picture with all those extraordinaries, you would agree with me and pick this one among all.

It's a picture of me and my sisters. People who had seen me with them would say that there are three Mandas in our family. That is how they describe our physical similarity. Non-physicals?

To be honest, I was not aware of these unseen characters we shared together. When we were children, I would chase them around crying and get spanked in the end by my mother or other corporal punishments for "torturing" these actually-not-so-innocent creatures. I remember that I coloured the house with desperate shouts and cries of my sisters nearly every day. Even after they got into teenagers, I could still find their point of weakness and torture them to cry for it. I still see them as the little babies who'd never grow up.

Sometimes I envy my friends who could get along very fine with their siblings. So fine that they do not mind to sincerely express their love towards each other and actually miss them when one is leaving the others. Me and my sisters are very proud individuals. We would never say that we love or miss one another out loud as much as we might want to.

However, it was very clear during this year, I found myself getting more and even more attached to them. Kezia is now in her first year of senior high school and Muti is in her second grade of junior high. Neither of them is exactly a baby. I can feel it from the changes in the way we communicate, their taste in music, how much they got involved in recent trends and their shifting priorities and point of views. I can barely remember now why would I tortured them in the past while we can get along so easily at this moment.

We share the same interest: comic books, internet, computer games, jokes, and some of the music influences, mostly my childish demands. Even when our interests contradict, we would work our ways and eventually come to an agreement at some point. This is when I realize that my babies had grown. I used to ask Muti if she feels uncomfortable being "spoiled" and treated as a brat. She does not mind. It gave me even more reason to not see them as growing teenagers.

However, I checked their facebook for quite some time and... well, to put it short, it inspired me to see them as they are now. To see them in the way the world see them. They are no longer those brats who cry when I took their dolls or stupid kid with whom I had to argue to get to read our kids magazine first. They already got their ability to reason and sometimes it simply fascinates me to see how fast they have developed their mind. Maybe I have gotten too soft myself but I'd rather let this feeling to last :)

Labels: curhat, family