Snapchat is an app designed to send real time video and picture messages back and forth. They have implemented features like Snapchat Story, sending funds through the messaging side of the app, and in the newest version have even added a Discovery feature where users are able to view Snapchat Stories of big names like National Geographic, Vice News, and Food Network.
Most users of Snapchat use it to communicate with friends and even to send a naughty pic here and there as the content is supposedly wiped from the servers after its time limit expires, but Snapchat did something for me that no one would expect. It brought me and my next youngest sister closer together.
Mac was born when I was 5 and a half years old. I had begun to develop my own personality and was more than old enough to have feelings of resentment for this pudgy pink little screamer that forced itself into the little family of my mom and me. Growing up she and I had our fair share of problems; the regular fighting, clothes stealing, and sibling rivalry that comes with having a sibling.
Mac is now 15 going on 16, and I am sad to say she and I have never been close. We don’t relate to each other other than in style, and we have completely different personalities. To tell the truth, I have always felt like my mom liked her more than me, and that really prevented me from trying or even wanting to get to know her. I’m not proud of it, but it’s true.
She added me on Snapchat, and I was like “Oh fuck. This isn’t good.” What kind of party loving, reckless, excessively rowdy 21 year old would want their 15 year old sister who lives with their mom to follow them on Snapchat? NONE! I was like “Wonderful, she’s gonna show my mom all my shenanigans and then I’m gonna have to hear about it.” I never expected Snapchat to be the thing that makes me and my sister close.
I have always felt like Mac was from Mars and I’m from Jupiter; what I’m saying is I felt like she and I had next to nothing in common except for the fact that we are the exact same size in clothes. I watched her first Snapchat story after we added each other and was blown away; she has the same dry, sarcastic sense of humor that I do! She’s also the fun girl people want to be friends with in high school, kind of like I was. She’s very smart and unique and she doesn’t appear to have any desire to fit in to the wallpaper… Just like me.
She sent me a Snap the other day that had me in tears; I guess a boy in her class always seems like he’s on drugs. I snapped her back and said “It’s high school, he very well might be on drugs”, and it seemed so cool that I just told her something about the world! This past weekend Mac’s best friend had her 16th birthday and they all stayed in a hotel together and it was pretty cool to watch her story and see her having fun with all of her friends. She loves my night out Snapchats; she says my life looks like one in the movies. I haven’t yet told her that those fun nights out cost me so much in the morning, but it’s been wonderful to have these little blips of insight into my sister’s life and personality.
Since we have been friends on Snapchat, I feel closer to my sister than ever. I know what her days at school look like (yeah I know she shouldn’t be Snapchatting in school but hey I’m not the parent!), I understand her sense of humor, and I feel like I’m finally making up for the past 15 years of not knowing my own sister. I talked to her and she feels the same way- that she gets to see what her big sisters life is like. She wouldn’t have this opportunity otherwise; I moved out of the family home almost two years ago and it’s been difficult to balance all of the pieces of my life.
Up till now, snapchat wasn’t something I felt like would change my life. But here I am with a newly strong relationship with my sister, and that’s not something I ever expected. I am however, eternally grateful!
Most users of Snapchat use it to communicate with friends and even to send a naughty pic here and there as the content is supposedly wiped from the servers after its time limit expires, but Snapchat did something for me that no one would expect. It brought me and my next youngest sister closer together.
Mac was born when I was 5 and a half years old. I had begun to develop my own personality and was more than old enough to have feelings of resentment for this pudgy pink little screamer that forced itself into the little family of my mom and me. Growing up she and I had our fair share of problems; the regular fighting, clothes stealing, and sibling rivalry that comes with having a sibling.
Mac is now 15 going on 16, and I am sad to say she and I have never been close. We don’t relate to each other other than in style, and we have completely different personalities. To tell the truth, I have always felt like my mom liked her more than me, and that really prevented me from trying or even wanting to get to know her. I’m not proud of it, but it’s true.
She added me on Snapchat, and I was like “Oh fuck. This isn’t good.” What kind of party loving, reckless, excessively rowdy 21 year old would want their 15 year old sister who lives with their mom to follow them on Snapchat? NONE! I was like “Wonderful, she’s gonna show my mom all my shenanigans and then I’m gonna have to hear about it.” I never expected Snapchat to be the thing that makes me and my sister close.
I have always felt like Mac was from Mars and I’m from Jupiter; what I’m saying is I felt like she and I had next to nothing in common except for the fact that we are the exact same size in clothes. I watched her first Snapchat story after we added each other and was blown away; she has the same dry, sarcastic sense of humor that I do! She’s also the fun girl people want to be friends with in high school, kind of like I was. She’s very smart and unique and she doesn’t appear to have any desire to fit in to the wallpaper… Just like me.
She sent me a Snap the other day that had me in tears; I guess a boy in her class always seems like he’s on drugs. I snapped her back and said “It’s high school, he very well might be on drugs”, and it seemed so cool that I just told her something about the world! This past weekend Mac’s best friend had her 16th birthday and they all stayed in a hotel together and it was pretty cool to watch her story and see her having fun with all of her friends. She loves my night out Snapchats; she says my life looks like one in the movies. I haven’t yet told her that those fun nights out cost me so much in the morning, but it’s been wonderful to have these little blips of insight into my sister’s life and personality.
Since we have been friends on Snapchat, I feel closer to my sister than ever. I know what her days at school look like (yeah I know she shouldn’t be Snapchatting in school but hey I’m not the parent!), I understand her sense of humor, and I feel like I’m finally making up for the past 15 years of not knowing my own sister. I talked to her and she feels the same way- that she gets to see what her big sisters life is like. She wouldn’t have this opportunity otherwise; I moved out of the family home almost two years ago and it’s been difficult to balance all of the pieces of my life.
Up till now, snapchat wasn’t something I felt like would change my life. But here I am with a newly strong relationship with my sister, and that’s not something I ever expected. I am however, eternally grateful!