By Jennifer 

    Everything was going great. I had all the toys and my parents to myself. I even had my own bedroom. It wasn’t very big because we lived in a trailer and I had to share it with the washer and dryer, but I could call it mine. I had so many toys and fun things. My parents would always play games with me and I was the only one in the house that would get spoiled until that night.

    September 2, 1986 was the night that it all changed. That was the night that my new baby sister was born. All I remember was listening to a song by Robert Palmer called "Addicted to Love." Then the next thing I knew, my dad was rushing my mom to the car and talking on the phone to my aunt at the same time. I noticed that my mom wasn’t feeling so well. As soon as my aunt got there, my parents left. My aunt said they were going to the hospital, and they would bring me back a new baby brother.

    When they came back, there wasn’t a boy in sight besides my dad. I had a brand new baby sister. At first I thought that it would be cool because I could teach her all of my favorite things to do. I could teach her to dance to the album of the year, which was so by Peter Gabriel. I could play Barbies and other games with her.

    It wasn’t until my mom turned on the news, and I heard that Cathy Evelyn Smith was sentenced to three years for the death of John Belushi that I turned to Jenny and tried to play with her, but she was asleep. My mom yelled at me and told me not to wake her up because she would be crabby and cry. I asked my mom if I could change the channel to something different, and she let me. I turned it to the World Cup. It was supposed to be in Colombia that year, but it was held in the United States instead. As I was watching the game, I noticed that my mom was holding Jenny. She had just told me that I couldn’t wake her up, and she took her and started to walk around with her. She even gave her my toys to play with. I couldn’t believe that my mother would give my toys to a baby that drooled and slobbered all over them. Jenny ruined most of my toys.

    Having a sister has its ups and downs. Not only am I a role model for her, I also have someone to talk about all the things in life. I am glad that I could look to Corazon Aquino. She was TIME’s woman of the Year. She was a great person. My favorite actress, Whoopi Goldberg, got married.

    As Ronald Reagon ended his term in office a couple years after Jenny was born, I ended the jealous stage. I no longer thought that Jenny got all the attention. We both entered a new stage in our lives because we inherited a new baby brother!