Let's Celebrate Our...Differences!

For years my sister and I fought about EVERYTHING, all the time. While she is an order-obsessed neat freak who loves simplicity, I am a free-spirited extrovert who adores all things extravagant. I am spontaneous, creative and adventurous. She is a super-organized planner who only feels alive when she is calculating something.

I can’t even begin to count the number of times we've almost throttled each other because of our personal differences. I am a feeler, she is a thinker. There are times she’s called me a cry-baby while I’ve accused her of being an insensitive robot.

 I love all things shiny and sparkly. She prefers things that don’t attract any unnecessary attention. Actually, let me rephrase that – she prefers things that don’t attract ANY attention AT ALL! Her motto is “Less is more.” Mine is “Go big or go home.” While I love socializing and come alive on stage, my sister has panic attacks at the mere thought of addressing a crowd.

Because we could never understand each other's personalities, I ultimately concluded that she was an uptight puritan who had no sense of fun whatsoever, while she believed that I was an out-of-control nut-case who loves attention.

About 2 years ago I bought a pair of diamond-studded stiletto heels. The naked truth is that I fell head over heels in love with all the bling on them. Tragically, I discovered I couldn’t walk well in them because they were a little too high for me (I'll admit I’m a bit of a klutz). So I gave them to my sister.

My heart practically dropped to the floor days later when I discovered that she had removed all the diamond embellishments from the heels. It took all my self-control not to grab her by the neck and scream, “What on earth have you done???” Seeing the bamboozled expression on my face, she calmly announced, “I like them better this way.” And that was that.

Then of course there were all the camps we attended together. While my sister spent hours meticulously packing all her stuff in order of colour, shape and size, I hung out with my friends, went shopping, danced to music – I basically did anything and everything except for packing. At the last minute, I randomly stuffed all my things into my bag and we left for camp.

On arrival, I found that I had forgotten my toothbrush, towel, bath- soap, pyjamas… and freaked out. After letting me stew for a while, my sister revealed that she had remembered to pack all those things for me. And so, her meticulous planning saved me from what could have been a disastrous camping experience.

Over the years we have learned to celebrate our differences and use our strengths to form an amazing team. We are both heavily involved in the Youth Ministry at our Church. While I’m responsible for the creative, public-relations side of things, she’s in charge of all the logistics, finances and Admin. And we both couldn’t be happier.

So, in light of all this, I have a question for everyone out there: isn't it time we all buried our hatchets and worked together for the good of our world? So what if he prefers pizza to burgers, basketball to football or movies to reality shows? What's so terrible about her liking tulips instead of roses, lip-stick instead of lip-gloss or R n' B instead of Hip Hop?

There's a reason we are all so different - it's called "variety." And like the popular saying goes, "Variety is the spice of life." At the end of the day, we're all human beings who long to be loved, accepted and celebrated. It's time to forget the past and embrace a better, brighter future - a future where we live in harmony...a future where we use our skills to help others, not sabotage them...a future where love is a lifestyle, not a four-letter word we use to manipulate others...

It's time to live, laugh and learn TOGETHER! The best in life is waiting!