Story Time: The Princess and the Slave

Are you an older sibling? Did you have the opportunity and pleasure of shaping the mind and well-being of another human far earlier than you should have been able to? That was me.

My name is Juliana and I was a terrible sister. 

As a young girl, I spent a lot of my time at home with my little sister. We were unsupervised in a normal 90's kid kind of way, I think. One of my favorite games to play was what we called, "The Princess and the Slave."

The premise of the game was, I was the princess and my little sister was the slave. Pretty simple. I'd say something like, "Fetch me my slippers," or "Your Majesty is parched and is in need of some water." And little Angelina (that's my sister's name), would hop up and do all that I commanded. I had it made.

She was thrilled that I would play with her and I was thrilled to be the boss. I was born bossy. But I'll never forget the day my little sister stood up to me, the princess. 

It was a normal day like any other day that we played. But apparently on this day, Angelina had had enough. We were in our shared bedroom, and I believe I was perched on my thrown. I had demanded something of her; snacks, slippers, fanning, who knows? But she refused. 

I remember being flabbergasted. She firmly said no and then just walked away. She had reached her max. And we never played The Princess and the Slave again. 

The End

Just kidding. Kind of. My memory is fuzzy about my childhood, but I do remember this incident vividly. My ego was hurt. My little sister is my favorite person in the whole world and she put up with a lot of the worst parts of me as a big sister. Thankfully she doesn't seem to hold any of my torment against her. Thank God for siblings that love us unconditionally.