Introduction:
There’s truly no place quite like the J-Room. We may wear fuzzy socks instead of ruby red slippers. We may have Tate instead of Toto. We may have dusty old tile floors instead of a shiny yellow brick road. Regardless, the J Room is still just as magnificent as Oz, though it’s not complete unless you have someone to share it with. We, sophomore Anna McClelland and junior Courtney McClelland, get to share our love of Adobe InDesign and room 521 with each other. And we’ll use it all to write a blog together: My Sister Says I’m…
Anna:
My sister Courtney is my biggest role model. But, being 13 months apart, we fight a solid 99 percent of the time we’re together. We know just how to push each other’s buttons. Well, correction – she knows just how to push my buttons. I have no idea where her buttons are. I can never win arguments with her because I can truly never find a flaw to point out.
Courtney is everything I am not. She gets perfect grades, she’s athletic, she likes writing and she’s Mom’s favorite. On the other hand, I get average grades, I’ve always been pretty bad at sports, I love design and I am not really Mom’s favorite – even though she’ll never admit it.
But, in all the ways we are different, there are a thousand more in which we are the same. We both have a deep appreciation for music and the arts. We both live for Garden of Eden salads from the Mixx – mini, no cheese, with chicken. We are both die-hard liberals and we both share an undeniable love for the Harbinger.
The Harbinger has been a unique opportunity for me and Courtney to bond. I help her with her designs, she helps me with my writing. The amount of times we have joked with each other, “Hey Court, if I design your page, will you write my story?” is innumerous.
Courtney pushes me to do my best in journalism – and in life. She makes me go to Harbie Day to socialize with other staffers outside the confines of school, when I would rather lay in bed and watch Netflix. She makes me ask other editors questions, instead of just her. She sets a standard of what I want to achieve, and holds my hand while I reach those goals. Courtney has helped me abandon my shyness and has taught me not to be so introverted – at least not all the time.
The Harbinger has not only helped me grow as a person, but it has strengthened my relationship with my big sis. Every deadline, every Harbie Day and every broadcast, I find myself loving her more and more.
Courtney:
There’s no one else that annoys me more than my sister, Anna. When I walk into the J – room and see her wearing my sweatshirt, it takes all of my older sister will power to restrain from yelling. She’s 13 months younger than me, but acts like she’s 13 months older.
But for every ounce of me that can’t stand her, I somehow still love her more. She’s my built – in best friend — her DNA requires her to be there for me. And so, for the love of journalism, we’ve decided to endure the fights and write a blog together.
I now have second hour Harbinger with Anna, and being in a class with her has taught me a few things. One, save the fighting until you get home, Tate really doesn’t want to hear it. And two, Anna isn’t just the dumb little sister I always saw her as. She’s actually talented at design. I hesitate to say that she may even be better than me, but that’s a whole different argument.
Harbinger has taught me to work and collaborate with a variety of different people, but perhaps the biggest success is learning to work and collaborate with my little sister. In second hour we’ve learned to share design ideas, edit each other’s writing and somehow manage to not fight while doing it.
We’ve carpooled to deadlines together and missed many Wednesday night family dinners because of it. We’ve gotten strange looks from our mom as we talk JPEGs and CMYK and we’ve criticized each other’s work. Isn’t that what sisters are for?
Second hour isn’t sunshine and rainbows all the time. In fact, a lot of the time it’s a war zone, and you never know when you might step on the next landmine. But once the explosion dies down and the casualties have been cleared, it’s actually a little fun to have a class with my sister. Sometimes we even sit on the blue couch and laugh together.