Anastasia Smith: 24, sisterless and searching.
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I AM LUCKY ENOUGH to have become good friends here at graduate school with a bonified Jane Austen nerd. (Hello, former English majors!) When I am a mess over school or weepy about love sagas, this friend of mine always listens to my gripes and then pauses thoughtfully, before saying something to the effect of: “It sounds like you need some more Jane in your life.” (Yes, this is her proposed remedy for everything.) [click to continue…]
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SISTERLESS AS I AM, all my original lessons on sisterhood came from my sweet, sweet Mama. Here she is in 1981 with baby Brother T. Of course, I still catch her gazing at him with that exact same adoration now 30 years later. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mamas (and mama’s boys)!
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IHAVE SOME VAGUE MEMORIES of watching Steel Magnolias with my childhood best friend and neighbor, Amanda. We were too young to understand what was happening between all the glamorous big hair and delicious southern accents but we were enamored just the same. We both cried at the end. I’m not sure that we even understood why. I just remember feeling an overwhelming sense of sadness, that (thankfully) was quite novel to me then. I was reminded of this memory, hazy though it may be, just a few days ago [click to continue…]
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LAST WEEK I THREW myself over a huge hurdle. (And I’m still not even sure how I did it.) I completed my MFA thesis reading. My parents came to North Carolina from various corners of the world and my sweet boyfriend traveled all the way from Tokyo to see me read. But even among all the excitement, I was sad to see that one big-baby-man-face was missing from the crowd. That’s right: T was on vacation in Costa Rica. However, my brother did send this congratulatory email in his absence. [click to continue…]
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TOMORROW MARKS THE 38th ANNIVERSARY of the supreme court’s Roe v. Wade decision. I’m so grateful to have been born into a country where sisters (and brothers, too, of course) before me fought for women’s right to choose! So how are you celebrating? Need ideas? [click to continue…]
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AS IT TURNS OUT, my brother T has been in the throes of paramount brotherly obligations lately. And no, I do not mean he has been on the phone coaching me through my teaching dilemmas with sage big brother advice. He happens to be the best man in his BFF’s upcoming wedding. And in true T fashion, he is taking this duty very seriously. And by very seriously, I mean he has been planning a blow-out bachelor party in Las Vegas. When we talked about it on the phone, I was all “Whaaat?! Don’t you think that’s a little extravagant?” And he was all, “No.”
Brotherhood means business, I guess.
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I‘M DIGGING this photo post about girlfriends over at the blog size too small. It’s so sweet! This holiday season, I’m on the road, traveling in Japan with my boyfriend. We’re having a fantastic time, full of sticky rice balls and silly awkward bowing exchanges with strangers, but today, I’m feeling especially pangy for the Christmas-y comfort of my hometown girlfriends. Le sigh.
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SPEAKING OF CRAFTS, I thought I’d share a photo that sums up how I’ve been spending the bulk of my free time lately. That’s right: I’ve been canning. It all started with this recipe for refrigerator pickles that Margaret Roach, founder of The Sister Project, posted on her gardening blog. I love how the simple steps of canning–sterilizing the jars; boiling a brine; gathering the perfect combination of spices–connects me to Margaret even though we’re separated by a thousand miles, and also connects me to the many women in my family who have done this very activity over the past hundred years. This women’s work is powerful stuff, eh?
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Hello 25! (Photo by Shaina Machlus)
ONE OF THE REASONS why I’m always geeking out over the blogosphere is because there is such amazing potential for community within it—it’s like a great big amorphous blob of sisterhood just waiting to be claimed and shaped. And in large part, that’s why we started The Sister Project as a blog network. What better way to explore sisterhood than through a medium that inherently fosters community? Lately, I’ve been most excited about an internet project started by 22-year-old blogger Cassie Boorn in which she asks older female bloggers what they would say to their younger, 20-something-year-old selves. Here’s the scoop: [click to continue…]
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HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! Here’s a picture of my mother when she was my age. Isn’t her 1970s style amazing? (She rocks the center part and aviators so well.) I love you, Mama! What are you doing with your mom to celebrate?
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LONGTIME FAVORITE: Two Sisters (on the Terrace) by Pierre Auguste Renoir
First time here? Here's the idea: The Sister Project is a network of blogs about the many facets of the word sister, and the concept of sisterhood. A sisterhood of sister blogs, you could say. Whatever sister means to you, from identical twin to sister-in-law (or in friendship or in feminism), we’ll make room to listen in about it or express it on TSP. Like the slogan up top on our homepage says, “Don’t you have something to say to your sister?” We've got galleries of art and literature by and about sisters, and a Sisterpedia of sisterly trivia...but now we're getting ahead of ourselves. The quick study: Learn more about TSP, and how to find your way around. And oh—a giant, sisterly welcome.