When your sibling goes away to college, what next?

Many students at CVHS have an older sibling who is in college.  These siblings leave their families to go attend a university or college and explore the new world of freedom and an expensive education.  Although I was always aware that I would be left at home when my sister left for college, it was a shock when I woke up and suddenly realized that my sister’s room was empty and that there was a van jam-packed with all of her belongings.

All my life I have grown up with an older sibling, which means that the attention from my parents has been split up equally.  Whenever I bombed a test, I was certainly made to study harder for the next one, but it was okay, because most likely my sister had bombed the same one two years earlier.

But now I come home and am asked, “What’d you get on your test?” when it is the very same day that I have taken it.  Not only am I surprised at the expectation for me to know my test grade a few hours after I have taken it, but I am amazed that they even remembered that I even had a test that week.

I took for granted the liberty of being able to stay home without parental supervision, except for my sister, and now the “supervision” is off in UC Davis.  The recent Canyon kidnapping scare has not improved the insist hounding to either stay at my grandmother’s house after school or find a friend to accompany me home.  As a sixteen-year-old, I find this lack of trust over cautious and a little bit constrictive.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my parents and grandparents to death, but as a teenager, I am expected to start pulling away from the nest, not be contained in it.

I miss my sister, not just because I am trying to adjust to the new attention and protectiveness. I miss seeing her around CVHS, talking to her, making lame jokes with her, having someone to look out for me.

But a major comfort is that I know I’m not the only one going through this change; many of friends have older siblings who are now freshmen in college.

To those who are newly finding themselves as an only-child at home: don’t worry, you’re not alone.