Along with a car, bus ride, or walk home, and actually living together, at some point, siblings may end up going to school together. Whether that’s for a year or for their whole lives, it affects how they perceive school and each other.
Seniors and juniors with siblings have usually just recently started sharing their school lives with their siblings after a multi-year break. “It’s weird being in the same school as my sister since the last time we were in school together was elementary school so whenever I see her in the hallway it always takes me a second to remember that we now go to school together,” senior Brielle Rudolph said.
For younger siblings, the older one introduces the world of high school to them, making their transition from middle school to high school smoother. “When I was a freshman it was nice to have someone I already knew at school before I met people,” junior Eli Kertesz
The oldest sibling often sets the standard for school. They get the first look into everything; the kinds of teachers, the workload of classes, the general feel, meaning they make a mark for their younger siblings. “I make sure to get my work done on time and I strive for good grades, which I believe are good things to look up to,” Rudolph said.
While that mark is important to make, it also sets expectations for the younger siblings that can be challenging to follow. “It feels like if [my older sister] took a lot of APs, then I should take a lot of APs too because it is kind of like I should follow in her footsteps,” junior Anna Lizondo said.
Others find these expectations not to be worth following. “I love my sister but I know that we are two incredibly different people. I know that I don’t have to be in her shadow and I know I can make my own decisions even with the occasional debriefs and pieces of advice being thrown around,” freshman Lilly Zimerman said.
The older-younger sibling dynamic is common here, but the twin or triplet dynamic makes an appearance as well. “I think with my older sister, the school made our bond stronger especially since I got to see her circle of friends, what she does at school, and we have more to take about at home, especially because there is an age difference, we just have more to take about because we know more about each other’s lives, but for my brother, especially because we are twins and we know the same people, we try to keep our distances,” Lizondo said.
Despite any disposition to sharing a school, students generally find their relationship with their siblings getting stronger. “We can relate to so much more now because she has some teachers I once had and she’s taking classes that I’ve taken so we can share information and funny things that have happened,” Rudolph said.
