Operation BWYP: Things My Sister Taught Me
My sister is coming into town today. She and her brand, spankin’ new husband, John Michael, are flying in to celebrate the 4th with all of us. Chris and I are picking her up at the airport tonight and then we’re all heading up to my parent’s house for the weekend. I’m so excited! I haven’t seen her since her wedding extravaganza in April.
Ginny and JM on their honeymoon in Maui.
My sister has always been one of those people who lives a crazy life. At least, compared to my homebody ways it is crazy. Take, for example, this picture…
This was one summer a couple years ago, just after she graduated from college. She and her friends decided to have their own Olympics. So, they all dressed up in elaborate costumes, each representing a different country. This picture was taken during Opening Ceremonies. Ginny is representing the North Pole and she’s carrying a sparkler as the Olympic torch. She ran it all the way through her apartment complex. For the rest of the weekend, they had various different events where they competed for medals.
Why all the huss and fuss?
No real reason at all actually. Just Ginny being bored and imaginative.
She’s always been like that. She’s the kind of person you want to be friends with. I love having her around.
After college (where she was, naturally, President of her sorority, Chi Omega), Ginny moved to Atlanta where she took a job working at a high profile public relations agency. She quickly climbed her way up the company ladder and within a few years, she was already a Senior Account Executive, working with international clients such as Starbucks, Dove, Unilever, and Microsoft. She was good at her job for the exact same reason she was good at the Olympics – she was creative and dedicated.
When she and JM started getting more and more serious, I was so happy to see that he was just as fun and adventurous as she was. They were always traveling somewhere, sending back crazy pictures of the two of them doing crazy things…
Horseback riding
Zip lining and hiking
Flying helicopters
They were living life and loving it, and it seemed to be even more fun when they were doing it together.
And then the recession hit and JM (who is a project manager for a general contractor) started to worry about his job. Construction wasn’t booming and his company was whispering about lay offs. In the middle of all the uncertainty, JM was offered a job building a hospital, which would be a guaranteed job for the next two or three years – just enough to get him through the rough patch of the recession. The only problem was that he would have to move from their life in Atlanta to the middle of nowhere Virginia. At this point, he and Ginny were talking about getting married and he asked her to come with him. She thought about it for 2.6 seconds and then she quit her job, said goodbye to her roommates (her BFF’s and sorority sisters from college), and together they moved to Virginia.
I worried about her leaving a life that she really loved for something completely different, but Ginny never seemed to miss a beat. She and JM both seemed to just dive right into their new lives. In a city as small as where they live, there were no PR jobs and so Ginny instead decided to do something completely different and she became a preschool teacher. She calls me every now and then and lets her entire class of 3 year olds sing me and Bean songs. It’s adorable. And while she has moments and days when her job drives her crazy, for the most part she doesn’t seem to look backwards at all.
She and JM embraced the changes around them, even when those changes weren’t what they expected.
They didn’t try to bring their old life to Virginia. Instead, they embraced the place where they were right then. And though sometimes, I felt like they might be jumping in a little too far…
They just kept forging ahead, learning new things about where they now were and growing as a couple as they experienced all of it together.
It wasn’t until I started talking to my sister about how hard our move had been that I realized how hard her move had been as well. Actually, her move had been much harder because they left people they loved and moved farther away and Chris and I at least had my parents here to help us get adjusted.
To me, Ginny and JM are the definition of blooming where you are planted. She showed me that it isn’t always perfect when you plant new roots, but that the trick is to keep moving forward. To keep digging deeper into the new soil where you are planted. And to wrap your roots around your partner so that the two of your grow together. Ginny has always been an in-the-moment person. Actually, we used to tease her and worry about her because of it. She was sort of an extreme present tense person, never wanting to look ahead but never looking behind either. And while she has gotten much better as she has gotten older about balancing her present happiness with future planning, she continues to show me how much life has to offer when you are present in your life.
Isn’t it great the things you can learn from your baby sister?
37 Comments
Jessica @ How Sweet
This couldn’t ring more true and is something I NEEDED to read. I often have a hard time with changes and tend to hold back and just be angry. I need to open up more and be more accepting of the changes around me.
Alaina
Aw, that’s really sweet and very true. I need to learn how to bloom where I am planted, as well…maybe you’ve started a movement here!
kate
This is SO sweet and inspiring! I have an incredibly difficult time with change, but now I’m considering leaving a job I’ve loved and had for 10 years (Since college! See? I hate change!) to stay home with my 5-month-old — a choice I never saw myself making before. I love that little sisters can teach us so much! Such a great post about your sis!
Jen at Cabin Fever
..BLOOM..
Such a great verb.
Your sister and you are proof that its possible anywhere. Its all a matter of attitude 🙂
Cabin Fever in Vermont
Sarah H.
This is a WONDERFUL post! She didn’t have anything to be nervous about 😉 Have a super fun holiday with everyone! Oh and I’m sorry if my bloom where you aee planted email was just too long and ridiculous, whoops!
Abigail
Great post and what an awesome sister you have!
Katie
you and your sister are beautiful! it’s funny how in some pictures she looks identical to you and in others you look so different! so glad to know i’m not the only one who gets my inspiration from my baby sis sometimes 🙂
Rachel P.
You and your sister remind me so much of me and my sister. It’s great to have someone to share those ups and downs throughout life. Like you learning from Ginny, I’m sure there have been plenty of things you’ve taught your sister along the way! What a great outlook you both have. Thanks for sharing.
Tiffany
She’s a pretty fantastic example, for sure. Then again, I’m sure she feels that you have provided her with an equal amount of valuable inspiration, so you’re just both lucky to have such a great sister! (Makes me wish I had one too!) Anywho, give her a hug and say hi for me this weekend, because I’m proud of her too for blooming wherever she goes!
Abby @ They Lend Me Their Hearts
The second to last picture, with the goofy pose, looks like you! I had to stare at it a little to make sure it wasn’t you! :o)
Tabitha (From Single to Married)
What an adorable couple! And hey – Virginia isn’t so bad! Granted I live a few miles outside DC so it’s probably a little different up here, but still. 🙂
Jennifer
wow, I would love to have an additude like your sister :-). Granted I’ve lived in MA my whole life, but the taking on the world and being adventurious party. I’m way to much of a worrier sometimes. I think we could all use a person like this in our lives.
Marla
Great post…
Marla @ http://www.asthefarmturns.wordpress.com
Tressa
LOVE this post, made me tear up!
What a tribute to your lil sis.
Sounds like we all could learn a thing or two from Ginny!
Have a fun and safe holiday, enjoying family! 😉
Bronwen
I have really been enjoying all the discussion about change on the blog (and in the comments) lately! I have a big change coming up next year as my partner finishes grad school, and I hate transitions, so it is good to start getting ready!
Sarah@Crazy Love Gamble-Style
That it great. Your sister seems pretty awesome, must run in the family!
Don’t you just love having a sister??
I do.
Debbie
I have to know — where in Va is your sisters nowheresville? I grew up in Va and there is a new hospital going up not far from where I grew up. Is it somewhere within an hour of Richmond, kinda to the south?
I know, I am nosy.
BWYP is such a positive message, I needed that in my life.
Thanks!
Deb
Kelly
I was wondering the same thing. I live hear “H’burg” and I was wondering if that was the hospital she was talking about!
Great post! It sounds like they have lots of fun no matter where they are!
Ginny
We live in southwest Virginia… right on the Tennessee/Virginia state line. It’s actually quite nice but we definitely had culture shock when we moved from Atlanta!
Ashley
This is absolutely great! Thank you so much for sharing and to Ginny for being so inspiring!
Carrie T
Great post Katie. I love my little sister so much too. I am so happy that I have a partner in crime and I hate to admit it but I’ve learned things from her too.
The Lumberjack's Wife
I was definitely never like your sister . . . so it is always exciting for me to hear about the excitement in other people’s lives. 🙂
Loved the way you told the story. 🙂
RACHEL
aww so sweet, wish i was as close to my sisters, but UK and Australia are very far from each other, have a great 4th of July, i was luck enough to spend a 4th of july in Florida in 2004 we went to coco beach and then to universal to watch the fireworks it was awesome xx
Lisa
I really like your post and it makes me miss my little sister since we live in Dubai and she lives in Canada. I told my mother in law about the bloom where you are planted quote because she has been living in Dubai for 21 years and is more than ready to move back to Canada but it will probably be another few years before they move, even though they have just purchased their retirement home. She is having a hard time coming to terms with not being able to move right away and when I said this quote to her, she said “I have been blooming for 21 years and I am ready to be re-potted, re-fertilized, and re-watered!”
Christina
Sweet post! I’m so glad I have two daughters…sisters seem wonderfully special!
Megan
Oh so true! I try to remind myself of this very thing! I found some Mary Engelbreit fabric with that saying on it and decorated one of my kitchens in it. Didn’t work in this house but I still keep it in mind. It’s very good advice but not so easy to put into place sometimes. One day at a time though…one foot in front of the other… moving forward.
🙂
Megan
http://reddirtandcrazy.blogspot.com/
JLOhlmann
Katie~
Wonderful post! I have 2 younger sisters and they both teach me so much about who I am and who I am still striving to be! What a blessing that God gives to us through our family members!!
Just wanted to let you know now how much I love your blog. I don’t even recall how I stumbled upon you, but it was the quite possibly the best moment in my blog skimming life! I check out your blog/twitter/facebook more than I look at PW and I love me some Pioneer Woman!
I hope that you had a great 4th of July! Can’t wait to hear all about it!
Keep doing what you do!
Clare
Wowzers, you both look so alike too!
Jessica
What an appropriate post for me today! My fiance and I just moved into our first apartment together on Saturday and I admit I was feeling uneasy about it. I’m very close with my parents and (to make me sound like a baby) it was very hard to leave them! I still miss them (only been 4 days) and my house and it will take me time to adjust- but I’m also really excited to start this new chapter with my ‘soon to be husband in 101 days!’
My big sister and I are also close- so I call/text her a million times a day and she always helps me get through the transitions in my life 🙂
Angela
This post made me appreciate the gift of sisterhood, and how important my big sister is too me.
In other news, your sister looks like SO much fun.
Like she’s living every day like its her last.
( Which in my opinion, is a great way to live!)
Jones
I needed this! What a good reminder! 🙂
Kimberly Loomis
It’s funny how in some photos she looks so different than you, but in others she looks just like ya! Especially that pouty face. 😉
Katie
Isn’t it great when a younger sibling can teach their older sibling something so life changing!? Although rather ironic because as an adult it seems like something so monumental, but as a child it seems like something so devastating!
I’m hoping I can take your advice (and maybe learn a little from your sister too), and learn to bloom where I am planted. I haven’t made any long cross-country moves or anything, but I have been pretty unhappy with our rental home since we moved in it almost a year ago (our lease is a 2-year contract). I have decided that it’s time to make the most of what I’ve got here, and quit complaining about it! If I’m not willing to “bloom”, then I can’t complain about how much prettier all the other flowers are than me! Thanks for the advice!
Holiday W.
As someone who grew up with Ginny as well, Katie that is the sweetest thing I’ve read about a sister. I’m an only child and relationships like yours and Ginny’s really makes me feel I missed out on something special. But, both of you are an inspiration for how important relationships, blood and friends, are and I hope to run into you guys soon!
Emily
I read this post a while ago and keep coming back to re-read it, because it rings so true for me right now also. So, I just wanted to say: Thank you for sharing!
Nancy
Hummm.. I just stumbled upon your blog and this post and I just had to post a reply which I’ve never ever done. First off your writing is outstanding, fun, fresh and clever.
As the recession is still upon us my husband told me today that he was offered an AMAZING offer today and I want to uproot and take it and he seems so indifferent. The quick recap is that he is a PM for a general contractor in an area where his average home to build is $4M. Things have come to a screeching halt. His company now has a house on the table that is about 99% to breaking ground and his boss (who he has worked for for 11 years) wants to give him the company. Great deal right…well, there is nothing to give as in if this job pulls through great for a little while but not for the long haul. THEN yesterday one of his ultra mega rich clients called and asked us to drop our lives and move to CA to manage his home, as well as his home here and his other home in HI. He also said he would buy us a house while my hubby built them another new one. HELLO, this seems like a no brainer.
one side: job that just had another cut in pay and took away benefits
other side: move away from our home and friends to take on a sure thing for 2 or 3 years.
We wouldn’t even have to give up our home here and they would fly us back and forth.
This seems like a really simple decision…. what am I missing?
I am like your sister in that I can go anywhere and be happy as long as it is with my husband but I worry that he is holding himself back with this one.
ugh… I just had to say that out loud. We have only dreamed like an opportunity like this to come along and here it sits……
Stephanie
This is a great post and something I was needing to read since my husband and I recently moved to a different state.