Big Sister Energy

20 May 2026: 

Today while the group chat with my siblings was a bit lively, the song “I Melt with You” was playing on Pandora. 

I realized the first time I really heard that song, I was in the back of my mom’s minivan and we were driving Tara back home from a semester at college in the spring of 1990. I was always so excited to have her back home.

Anyway, I had my little Walkman and played a song for her that I was just swoony over: “Paintings in My Mind” by Tommy Page.** (Ha! It's not a great song, but I was young...) 

I can picture her*: putting on the headphones, listening, and telling me it was a great song. Immaculate “Big Sister Energy,” tolerating and even humoring my enthusiasm for the New Kids on the Block-adjacent pop star.  

Then she was like, “Let me play one for you…” 

Because she was the coolest person I knew, I agreed that it was a great song. (And come on—it is!)

Sometimes I think too much, maybe, about the hard parts of growing up. When I think of my siblings, though, so much is good and filled with love.

*A “painting in my mind,” if you will.

**RIP, Tommy Page. I still think you were swoon-worthy.