Sister Geekfest Part I

Lil Sis and Cookie spazzing out.

Speaking of geeks - meet my Lil Sis. I am smart, she is smarter. I am a nerd, she is nerdier. I went to UVA, she went to Duke and Harvard Business School (well, okay, is currently attending). She's younger, but interestingly, I look up to her. We have the best relationship two sisters can have (she forgave me for that 'beating her over the head with a hard cover Bible' incident, and the tale I told her while babysitting her that snakes can crawl up house walls and through windows, thankfully). With veritable geek pride, I'm instituting a series of dorky sister stories. The first:

As many of you already know, my family moved to the US just before my senior year of high school. To graduate, I was required to play catch up in US history and was enrolled in the 10th grade introductory class (if it had been a Canadian class I would have said Grade 10). Thankfully, Lil Sis was also in my class. Growing up together, Lil Sis and I amicably competed in just about everything. We were never envious of each other, we just set high standards and encouraged each other to excel. History class was no exception. After each test we’d look over to each other and say, “What’d you get?” The answer was never less than 90, but our test scores frequently varied by a few points. Whoever got the higher grade would smirk playfully for a moment. At the end of the first marking period (of which there were four), I had a 96.3 which was rounded down to a 96 (an A). Lil Sis had a 96.7 which was rounded up to a 97 (an A+). Now most people would be thrilled with an A (which I was), but I had been outwitted by my sister and had to step it up. The next marking period we both received A+s. At which point, our teacher, exasperated, said to the class “You guys have been taught American History for your entire lives, but yet, the two Canadians have the best grades…I just don’t get it.” Yeah, that one made us popular...

By the third marking period, Lil Sis and I were still excelling. With the tables slightly turned, she had an A and I had an A+ for the period, but there were many students who were doing poorly. The teacher gave the students the opportunity to do an extra credit activity to boost their grades. A few days later, Lil Sis walks into our teacher’s office, extra credit assignment in hand. He looks at her quizzically and says “you didn’t have to do this, you have an A.” Her response? “I know, but Jessica has an A+.” That might have been the first time he laughed out loud all year.

We both ended the year with an A+ overall; and I thank Lil Sis for helping make geek-dom just that much more fun. Love you, Beautiful!