My older sister recently said I was probably the "coolest" person she knew. Also wrote a very sweet paragraph about me specifically in the acknowledgments of her PhD thesis. All of which felt rather strange and made me realize how differently she sees the world.

Of course, one of the most damaging things said to me was by her when we were much younger. She constantly put down and declared stupid anything I liked or was interested in. So I learned that whatever I'm interested in is probably stupid and embarrassing and I shouldn't talk about it. (I recently gave her a cd of a musician that's been at the top of my playlists for years and years, and loved it and asked why I'd never mentioned them before. Uh... because 15 years ago you told me to shut up and I took it to heart.)