Sisterly Love

It’s not always a “positive” bond- there was an incident early on where I discouraged my parents from taking her to see The Incredibles because I read somewhere that it was too scary and violent- but it’s been pretty good overall.

During my sophomore semester at Drew, I was having a lot of issues concerning the stress I felt of being thrust into a dark, scary world with little support. However, I took refuge in my one “special interest” at the time- Doctor Who. While the show itself could get pretty dark and scary at times, technically speaking, the characters in the series had no need to worry too much about interdisciplinary threats, because they always could rely on an adorably quirky space alien to save them. And, barring “To Be Continued…” specials, the episodes more or less ended on happy endings.

Now, sometimes I would go too far with my “special interests” and force my sister to like them. I had no intention of being selfish, rather, I thought they would be something she would like. After all, she already shared some of my interests of the mid-2000’s, like VeggieTales, Hello Kitty, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Garfield (she had actually gotten me interested in the series instead of the other way around), and later on, Top 40 Pop. Especially Top 40 Pop. (Seriously, poor Mom had to put up with her yelling “I WANT Z100!” whenever she tried to play anything else on the radio. The only reason she wasn’t too upset over this was because her own siblings, my aunt & uncle, introduced her to the Beatles, and these guys didn’t even do as many drugs) So, I honestly thought she would be equally interested in my other interests, like Hilary Duff.

However, this eventually led to a nasty fight with Mom and Dad, when I tried to show her a Disney Channel music video and got upset that she didn’t like it. I hit her for doing so, so Mom and Dad took away internet privileges. This in turn led me to run out of the house screaming, and eventually, call the cops, who didn’t buy my story of my parents abusing me. Quite frankly, I didn’t buy my story of my parents abusing me- my dad is such a nice guy, and here I was, casting him as the villain!

This time, though, was different. I honestly didn’t expect her to join me, let alone enjoy the show, so I didn’t bother inviting her to watch with me. Even I knew forcing interests that were too mature for her, such as The Daily Show (she did repeat a rather cute joke from the show one time, but that was it concerning her interest in the show), John Hodgman, Kanye West (she did eventually have a friend who was a fan of him, at which point I felt old), or Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (technically she did watch it on her Ipad, but it entirely by her own initiative- I was honestly pretty impressed she showed an interest at all!) was going too far. Of course, it probably helped that, by then I had already understood the concept of “knowing my audience.” After all, my fifty-something baby boomer parents were not going to care too much about Avril Lavigne, and frankly, our parents are not supposed to like our music.

Also, while Doctor Who is kind of a show for kids- in fact it was originally conceived as a somewhat educational program for children back in ‘63 as like a proto-type to PBS Kids- it’s still more popular with teenagers & college students, then, say, the 8-14 crowd, fantasy plots and fun action notwithstanding. Yet, one day when I was watching the show at home, she came over, blanket and all, and decided to watch with me! As if that wasn’t enough, when I asked her if the Doctor (who, by the way, was played by David Tennant, only the most gorgeous person to play the Doctor on TV) is cute, she actually agreed with me! It was absolutely precious.

This wasn’t the only instance of Flora and I bonding over favorite television. Later on, shortly after I finished college, my neighbor, a kindly elderly Irish grandmother, invited my sister and I to hang out. Since it was on TV, I decided to watch South Park while she & Mom chatted. Basically, the episode had them playing homage to The Bachelor. Basically, they needed a new replacement for their friend Kenny because their old one kept dying (if you’re not too familiar with the show, Kenny was a character who kept dying in lots of episodes) and they gave boys who had potential to be the new Kenny “roses”- just like on The Bachelor. Then, out of the blue, and, in the most adorable way possible she said “My last name is Rose!” It was really cute. Cue her saying “South Park!” over and over in the most adorable way possible.

“My sister is a South Park fan now. Maybe we’ll watch the show together!” I told Mom later that evening. Hey, it’s 18-year-old humor- can you blame 18-year-olds for liking it?

“And chase us out of the house screaming!” said Mom.

While they did find the incident to be quite cute, my parents were a bit concerned about us watching South Park at our elderly neighbor’s house, because she’s an old, somewhat proper grandmother. However, she was upstairs and so didn’t hear anything- if an inappropriate show is being played and a grandmother isn’t around to hear it, it isn’t offensive now is it? Not to mention, my sister was literally turning 19 in about two weeks, and I wanted to expose her to 18-year-old humor while I still could. The episode wasn’t even that bad- unlike some episodes which feature things like guys deliberately giving themselves cancer in order to get free marijuana, or the boys’ gay teacher trying to become male again (don’t ask how) after regretting his choice to be transgender- it had the fairly innocous plot of the boys trying to get a “new friend” and if you didn’t realize why they needed a new friend, it just looked like a normal episode of a kids’ show.

Now, I am not saying that this is a fix to all our problems, or something to help my sister with her issues. I am just saying that bonding with my sister over TV together is a beautiful thing. After all, I am a bad, bad influence on my sister, and I’m proud of it!