Rebecca's Visit

My sister, Rebecca, was here for the weekend to receive the Distinguished Alumni Award from USU Mechanical Engineering Department. My sister is one of the smartest and most talented people I have ever met so it really didn't come as a surprise to me that they were honoring her with the reward. She definitely deserves it.

I have to admit that it was a little hard growing up in my sister's shadow. She is only 16 months older than me. We have always had different interests. In high school she was involved in academics and music and I was into athletics and hanging out with my friends. I found myself trying not to let my teachers find out I was her sister for fear they would expect the same from me. She was the 4.0 student, sterling scholar, valedictorian... The list goes on and on. She graduated with her PhD. from MIT and is now a tenured professor at Ohio State. She really is impressive just looking at her academic accomplishments. That's before you consider that she is an amazing mother and has made it look easy to take care of a five-year-old, two-year-old and triplet baby girls! (I know she doesn't feel like it is easy but I know there's no way I could handle everything she is doing!) It would probably be easy to be jealous of a sister that has accomplished so much but I have always been proud of her and admired her for everything she has done. Congratulations, Rebecca, on another outstanding award!

Rebecca was our closest relative when we live in Iowa and North Carolina and I have missed being able to hop in the car occasionally to visit her. I was excited she had an excuse to come visit us. She decided to give downhill skiing a try for the first time while she was here and she picked the perfect day with 15 inches of fresh powder. We had a lot of fun skiing with her and she caught on fast. It was a great weekend and I was sad that it went by so quickly!