Dear little sister-
I can't tell you, without sounding like a total sap, how proud I am that you're coming into your own and being a strong young woman, making good decisions and doing well in school.

Keep being who you are, and you'll find someone proper to spend SAABJ Day with someone who is deserving and will appreciate you for the kickazz, savvy mechanic chick you are.

I'll have to let the little things suffice, posting pics of us as kids- remember how hot those polyester softball uniforms were??!- and sending you notes now and again. As embarrassed as I was that you tackled me when I came off the plane in WI, I wouldn't trade that experience for anything in the world. The airport security all took a collective sh!t because of you. They needed it. I needed it, too.

Thank you for telling our parents that it was okay with you that I had a girlfriend when I first had a human companion to go along with my feelings. I think it made all the difference in their reaction.

You don't always need to be so dark, you have a pretty smile- You don't need to be so quiet, you always have interesting things to say. You don't need to laugh off your close connections to the past- you have been, in many ways, the closest tie I've ever had to memories that get folded under the turbulence of everyday life.

They say you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friends' noses... ...no. no, that wasn't it. You can't pick your family? Something like that. Anyway, I'd pick you anyway. I would maybe even pick your nose.

Loveya, sis. Have fun laughing at the guys who weren't good enough to spend SAABJ day with you this year.
~Aryn