Isn't it a wonder?

I love being a super middle child in our family (I call it "super middle child" because I'm the third of five children). Whatever theory there is on Middle Child Syndrome, I personally don't believe it. As part of our birth order, I get to bond with each one of my siblings in different ways. I wouldn't say different levels. It's not the intensity that differs but the manner itself.

Today, this post will be about Nikki, my younger sister.

I was just reading her blog and found myself laughing. Laughing not in any devious way but just plain laughing as when we find something funny. She makes me laugh with her thoughts and comments. Even her friends' comments are hilarious.

After reading her posts, it's comforting to see how interwoven our lives still are despite the fact that we only see each other during weekends. We're all busy in our own ways at this point in time. Even if she's housemates with our youngest sister and they both live in the same building as our other older sister, they don't get to see each other often as well. They're the doctors and "duty" is the name of the game. In my mind, I can't help but compare Medical School to Hogwarts School of Wizardry in terms of lifestyle. It makes more sense to me that way.

Last night, Nikki and I had dinner together. I had fun conversing with her, amazed at how dedicated and focused my little sister is. But then again, she has always been like that and it's when she's not that becomes surprising to us. Anyway, it was just me and her at the dinner table. Everyone else was out. I could just imagine my dad saying to me if he were home early as well, "May sakit ka ba?" As for Nikki, she's usually home resting during Friday nights when her schedule permits her to do so. She doesn't receive any of those playful comments.

Prior to dinner, Nikki was looking at some tickets on the piano. While reading the names of the ticket owners, she voiced out her confusion, wondering why five strangers (names she has not ever heard from any of us) have tickets on the piano, "Who's --? Who's --?"

I told her that the other one was my friend and that her name was just written in full. She recognized the name right away but was still baffled by the rest. I explained that I didn't really know the owners of the rest of the tickets as they were my friend's friends. They were to be claimed on Sunday.

But Nikki was still confused and asked, "Saan galing yung tickets?" I totally forgot that we weren't able to chat about this new surreal thing so I just said with a grin, "I'll be part of it."

And from there, our dinner conversation started. How come she didn't know about it, asking not in a demanding manner but more of how-come-you-didn't-tell-us-and-we-would-be-there-in-snap? I realized that I was only able to tell Ling and my mom because we were up late one weeknight. My schedule has been really weird lately that I go home late at night (or early in the morning) when everyone else is asleep and wake up in the morning when my parents have left the house.

Anyway, I wasn't able to tell Nikki because we were so busy last weekend with birthdays and other things that this "news" slipped my mind. She said she wanted to watch as well and to take photos. I would LOVE that because Nikki's the best photographer in the family, getting "uno" in her Photography class back in UP. I told her I could add her name to the guest list and get her an invite. And we were like two giddy girls, amazed at how it happened. I felt excited all over again.

But then she realized she had an exam the following day after that event. There, I saw how torn she was between 1) her responsibility as a medical student and 2) her desire to take beautiful photos as a photographer and as a physically supportive sister.

Being the very focused person that she is, it's not hard to guess that she chose Option 1. It's always Option 1 because that's what she set herself out to do. Sacrifices included. And then she said I could invite her in the future again once she's already an earning doctor. She was that sure that I'd do this again when in fact my thinking was just as simple as I'd be doing it because of the same reason others climb Mt. Everest -- "Because it's there."

With two and a half years in between us, my sister is the more focused one. Even back in college, she was this point-something away from summa cum laude. And then there's always a little something on the side that she was highly concentrated on -- singing for a play, mastering photography, and working out a long distance relationship. And then recently, there's always the constant performance of a medical student plus more -- their group medical paper featured in the newspaper and my sister presenting it as the group leader in a conference in Davao.

She also told me that I was the topic of a conversation she had with her roommate the other day. They were saying that they were amazed at how busy I was with so many things. I wouldn't write those "things" here anymore because most are already in my other posts and because I promised this will be more about Nikki. The point is... with all our differences in interests, lifestyles, and career, I'm her fan as much as she's mine.

And if we were to be likened to fruit drinks, she would be 100% orange juice, fully concentrated. And me, I guess I'll be the Four Seasons. The same life-giving tree actually bears different fruits -- full of flavor, fresh, and refreshing.