HAPPY BIRTHDAY ONEECHAN!!!

There’s something special about your best friend that makes you smile whenever you think of them. There’s something amazing that happens when someone understands you, your weaknesses, your talents, your dreams, and your greatest passions, and loves you still. And it never ceases to make me happy and smile every time I think of this person-my sister.

My sister is the type of person who doesn’t think very highly of herself. Her art, for one, is straight out of a Studio Ghibli film, her grades surpass the average crowd, and she also makes one great writer. But, there’s much more to her than what you see on the surface.

She’s a very unselfish person. Because she tends to come off as a shy person and prefers to observe the world around her quietly, she was viewed as the introverted, smart person in the back of the classroom who’d the other people in the class would borrow pens and answers from. But, I know her as someone who’s so other-centered, that she insists on spending money on me whenever she can. She will point her finger at me and say very firmly, “Bitty, I’m buying you lunch, you don’t have money,” if I ever tried to buy my own. She’s the type of person who will spend her whole paycheck on buying us expensive tickets to see a Korean violinist in town and get in trouble for it too for those very stressful parent talks. It amazes me how she would spend so much money on buying me merchandise at an anime convention so easily and yet will not take a moment for herself. She’s definitely someone who gives so much to other people and always ends with a smile saying, “of course!”

She’s a very deep, inspiring person. She’s the person who showed me how to dream, how to see the beauty in each day, and who inspired me to live a much different, happier lifestyle. I can’t thank her enough, without her, I don’t know where I’d be. And so when I mean deep person, I mean that she’s someone who knows how to connect to people in such a way that when she talks to people, she’s able to bring out the goodness in each of them and make them feel a hundred times more happier. She’s someone who reads a book, watches a movie, or finishes a Korean drama with me and is able to give me a ten minute lecture on how this concept is connected to this deep, philosophical thinking or how this person should have ended up with this person instead. My sister looks at the stars, sighs at the beauty of the city lights, runs to her daily cup of coffee, and doesn’t realize how much she has done for other people and blessed them with her existence.

So, Molly, thank you for being the best oneechan and best friend I could ever have hoped for! You’re so amazing, wonderful, self-less, inspiring, and talented! I could go on for quite a while on how much I love you, but I’m pretty sure you already know that!

And so, here’s some things that have reminded me of you (or us):

We’re the type of people to cry over the simplest of things, saying to each other, “Papa is so glad our little boy finally noticed that little cherry blossom wonder. HE’S SO GROWN UP!!!! WHERE’S MY GRANDCHILDREN!!!”

And if you ever insult one of her OTP’s, she will come with all the rage and fire within her to defend them.

She’s the type to never peep a word in public, but will not be afraid to express her feelings about her children or when her OTP has a moment.

And of course, this is us when an anime/sci-fi convention is coming up:

She always talks about her “dark circles”, her “flabby arms” or “pudgy legs”, but she doesn’t realize how pretty she is! She’s been stopped multiple times before, asking if she knew Japanese or is from Japan. See, you’re right out of an anime!

So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! I hope this year is the best one yet!

Love,

Momo

And of course, here’s a nice collage of people who inspired her to make her birthday day a reminder of how far she’s come and how many lives she’s touched!