Little Sis

I went to bed happy last night from all day spent with my little sis Ariel who came up from Tucson for the night. I’ve known her since she was 9, we were matched through the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tucson while I was in college.

Let’s reminisce of my youthful face and thin eyebrows haha! She was so tiny!

I love Ariel’s little family she has now (photos I took of them here).

She updated me on her life while I took photo of myself for an upcoming campaign on a tripod (sometimes it’s easier than asking someone to take photos and well, deadlines). We picked up lunch across the street and started Downton Abbey.

Then we ordered Cheesecake Factory and Benjamin picked it up and we continued to binge watch.

We took a break to take photos on a tripod until Benjamin got home from work because we thought we really need photos together. I’d much rather head to the desert but we didn’t plan this so we just took 30 minutes and took a photo in the backyard.

There are so many ways to give back and sometimes I miss the extra time I had to volunteer in college and I want to get back into that if I could only slow down on work.

Ariel and I were in Big Brothers Big Sisters for two years. I closed our account when I graduated so she could get paired up with another Big Sis because I moved to LA right after graduation. But we kept in touch and she visited – our relationship was real and just continued to be similarly to a real life sisterhood (been there for most of her children’s births).

When Ariel was little, she’d tell people I was her sister without any disclaimer. As a third grader you can imagine the kids looking at us confused HAHA. But she didn’t care, and sometimes she still doesn’t go into explaining it.

If you’re looking for ways to connect with a child, even just once a week is what I gave in college, I highly recommend Big Brothers Big Sisters! Being a mentor for a child was my platform when I did pageants and was my community service focus as well as domestic violence.

All this talk about community service and getting involved with the community and youth makes me want to volunteer again. I need to sit down and think of ways I can do that, I want to make a list of all the organizations and causes that mean a lot to me and jump in and find ways to help!

I didn’t have a post scheduled for today and I just thought I’d share this special relationship I have – after all, relationships is what life is about. ♥