Shania Russell

I didn't always want to be an older sister.

I was a younger sister for a while.

I have an older brother, and I really enjoyed the perks.

But I have this vivid memory of me lying on the floor of our apartment.

I'm coloring in a picture.

It's vibrant.

It's beautiful.

I'm in the lines.

I'm doing my best five-year-old drawing.

I'm like Michelangelo.

This is my Sistine Chapel.

And I stand up to show the picture to my grandmother and my older brother.

And just at that moment, the door opens and my mother and my father walk in and they're holding this little bundle and everyone runs to the door to see the new baby, to see my baby sister.

And I'm standing there with my Sistine Chapel and no one's looking at me.

And I'm like, oh my God, this is going to be the rest of my life.

But then this thing happens when your siblings get older and it turns out they have personalities and sometimes those personalities are pretty good and they grow on you.

And we spent summers together in Jamaica making up stories, going on adventures.

We read the same books.

We didn't always watch the same movies, but I realized that I could bring my sister to the movies I liked and make my sister like those movies if I tried.

And even though my artistic career peaked with my five-year-old coloring, my sister turned out to be this incredible artist who could paint and draw and weave baskets and crochet blankets.