Growing up in Minnesota as a Korean-American boy was a unique enough situation, so growing up in Minnesota with four older sisters between 8-14 years older than me probably takes things to completely uncharted waters. Living under one roof with my sisters was not a terrible experience at all, probably not as great as they thought it was for me, but it was definitely not terrible, like Punch-Drunk Love terrible.
Since there was such a huge age gap between my sisters and I, my life was not like the crazy sit-com that most people would envision. My oldest sister was left the house to go to college when I was 4, and every 2 years another sister was out of the house until I was left alone with my parents at the age of 10, so there are only so many memories of my sisters complaining to each other to hurry up and get out of the bathroom/shower. Luckily, other than the occasional request to fetch tampons from one bathroom to another, my sisters spared me the play by play details of female puberty.
Though I can't say that I've gone totally unscathed by living in a house with 4 older sisters. It's not because of dress-up parties or being forced to watch Beverly Hills 90210. It has to do with the age gap and while that sounds calous, it's the honest truth. 14 years is a lot of distance, it's almost a generation and not to fault my sisters, but I've discovered that their advice is a bit outdated and that has obviously had an effect on my life.
Since I was just a child when the majority of my sisters were in their teen years, they decided to take it upon themselves to teach me about dating, or more accurately, point out where their suitors had going wrong in their quest to date my sisters. These wouldn't be bitter tirades but I do remember being pulled away from the TV a couple of times to be told what to do and what not to do. My sisters were older than me and wiser than me so I took this advice and applied it to my life, a good ten years later to humiliating and terrible results.
Once again, I don't blame my sisters. The advice they gave wasn't necessarily bad. It's just that I was getting advice in 1986 that wasn't exactly on the same page with what was going on in 1996 and 10 years later in 2006. It wasn't until a couple of months ago where I told my oldest sister I was interested in a girl where I realized that while I respect and love my sister (married and mother of 2 children), she can't help me with the 2009 dating world.
Her advice to me: Buy her flowers.
Which I'm sure would've been great advice, 25 years ago.
1 comment:
Um, newsflash! I think your sister's right- most girls do like getting flowers.
Post a Comment