“Let’s be independent together!” my sister Molly, who has always protected my sister Kristi and me, said as we sat in our muggy garage packing our trunks for five weeks of camp in the unfamiliar mountains of North Carolina. Kristi and I had no desire to be away from our parents in a strange place for over 30 days. My parents told us we needed to be independent, and that having experiences away from home would help us in the long run. Molly’s reply to our fear was to tell us to be independent together. With this comment my worry seemed to escape me in a lot of ways. I realized that while I would be away from my parents, that I wasn’t alone. We had each other and we didn’t need anyone else. Little did I know that relying on each other
