Happy Birthday Cori

Ever since I named my favorite Barbie doll "Cori" and learned how to curl and tease my bangs, I've wanted to be just like my big sister.

Back then, I mimicked her every move. I listened to the same music she did. I watched the same TV shows that she did. I even played in her room when she was at school just so I could be around all of her "cool" stuff.

All of this resulted in a five year-old girl who watched 90210 in her hand-me-down New Kids on the Block t-shirt and got repeatedly locked out of her teenage sister's room.

It didn't matter. My big sister was the coolest person on Earth and I wanted to be as pretty and grown-up as she was.

She taught me all of the important things in life: how to curl my hair, mix cookie dough in the living room, eat soup out of a mug, tell the "My name is Chubby" joke and countless other valuable lessons.

I can still remember crying on my bedroom floor the day after she moved away to college. It was the first time I had ever experienced what it felt like to genuinely miss someone. My little heart ached, I missed her so much.

Twenty years later, I am thousands of miles away and again, I miss my sister.

Today is her 35th birthday. She has become an even more amazing woman than the teenage girl I followed around.

She's now a loving wife, a caring nurse and an amazing mother. She cooks the best food, arranges the cutest wedding and baby showers, gives the best speeches, and teaches me everyday how to be a better person.

She's the best example of everything I strive to be as I enter each stage of my life. I look up to her now just like I did then.

(Only now she has better taste in music, hair styles and TV.)

Happy birthday Cori. I'm so glad you're my sister.