The phone stops ringing and at the top of the screen it says: \u201cSister Dear Facetime unavailable\u201d and with a sigh, I tap the cancel button. Within the next minute, the ringing is back and it\u2019s my little \u2018Sister Dear\u2019 Tiffany FaceTiming me back.<\/p>\n
This year, Tiffany is a sophomore at the University of Omaha. I tap the answer button, she is wearing a towel and in the process of drying her hair. It\u2019s 11pm. She likes to shower late, just like when all of our conversations happen. Late.<\/p>\n
Yet, once the other answers it\u2019s like we aren\u2019t even apart. It immediately goes into a conversation about her day and the past other days just to catch me up on her life. Some days there just isn\u2019t time for us to talk. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard being here,\u201d Tiffany said, \u201chard because sometimes I just want to talk to someone who understands everything about me, but I can\u2019t because our schedules are different. When one person is free the other isn\u2019t or sleeping or working . . . it\u2019s just hard.\u201d It\u2019s the really bad days that get us to call another.<\/p>\n
Long-distance sibling relationships aren\u2019t your typical relationships because casual relationships fade over time sibling ties are forever. When you stop seeing a friend and you meet back up sometimes the relationship is still there but other times, the connection is just gone. You don\u2019t really have that problem with siblings it\u2019s just the family connection. You don\u2019t have to talk or interact often because no matter what family ties last.<\/p>\n
The thing is with FaceTime conversations they can last a while, compared to a quick phone conversation. Brayton Hagge, in her last year of college at Morningside, has a younger sister, Keely, who just started college at Doane. It was between Brayton\u2019s classes when she got a call from her sister needing to talk to her as soon as she can.<\/p>\n
Brayton agrees that sibling conversations are never chit-chat it\u2019s always, \u201cI had a really bad day can you listen to me?\u201d or \u201cOMG this just happened!\u201d or \u201cOMG I can\u2019t believe this just happened to me.\u201d or even \u201cHey, I just wanted to hear your voice.\u201d those are the only times Brayton hears from Keely, and I hear from Tiffany. It\u2019s the dramatic moments or the big moments in life that make long distance sibling relationships hard because you\u2019re only in contact with those moments. Even then you hear about what happened it\u2019s a couple of days late.<\/p>\n
Telby, my boyfriend from Minnesota, thinks a little differently. His home in Minnesota is six hours away from Sioux City and he talks to his younger brother once or twice a week via phone call, snapchat, or text message. \u201cI think it\u2019s relaxing,\u201d Telby laughs, \u201cthat means I don\u2019t have to deal with Tyber [his brother] and his nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Distance with siblings is a part of growing up and it can\u2019t be avoided. There are ways to adjust to the distance such as setting aside time during the day to make plans to talk. Texting is also an option but it can be harder because other things can distract you while you\u2019re texting, while a phone conversation is in the moment and present for the person and self.<\/p>\n
The distance of being in another state is just different from other types of distance because according to Tiffany, \u201cGoing away, this time, is more permanent compared to an overnight trip or being gone for a week. You never know when you\u2019re going to see the person again.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Brayton, she says it was hard studying abroad in Northern Ireland last year because she had to miss her sister\u2019s high school graduation. Sure, Keely was mad that Brayton missed her graduation. Yet, the distance also brings people together.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that Keely is in college it\u2019s easier for us to relate now that we are dealing with the same challenges,\u201d Brayton says.<\/p>\n
Telby says, \u201cBeing apart has made our relationship better and I appreciate them more when I do spend with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, I\u2019m getting sleepy. Thanks for talking to me.\u201d My sister says.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo problem. Good night.\u201d We blow each other kisses and then we hang up. It doesn\u2019t get easier, but it\u2019s all just a growing process. My little sister just isn\u2019t so little anymore. We\u2019re all just learning how to be on our own and sometimes we just need someone to hear us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The phone stops ringing and at the top of the screen it says: \u201cSister Dear Facetime unavailable\u201d and with a sigh, I tap the cancel button. Within the next minute, the ringing is back and it\u2019s my little \u2018Sister Dear\u2019 Tiffany FaceTiming me back. This year, Tiffany is a sophomore at the University of Omaha. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":815,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-september-classthings","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/815"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions\/333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}