Today is my youngest sister’s 20th birthday.  (Gah!  I can’t believe she is 20!)

Photo credit to my mom who captured this diva pose.

Rachel always has a plan or a sketch or an idea.  She is the mastermind behind a dozen research projects, which may or may not be the same projects tomorrow, and she is constantly thinking or investigating or designing.  Rachel is also a storyteller.  Every doodad on her bookshelf has a history and she can tell you what it is.  She is a total magpie collector of quirky things because they all have something to say and she can’t resist a good story.  When she was little, she would come along for weekends with us to my in-laws cabin and we would all camp out in the loft and tell collaborative ghost stories.  We would take turns telling the adventures of Gold Bug Nelson and the Wolves – when you got to a cliffhanger in your storyline then you would pass to the next person, who would pick it up and keep going.  I would be half asleep and just when you could feel the “and they all lived happily ever after” coming, there would suddenly be a Rachel plot twist and the wolves would be aliens and they were after the gold.  20 is going to have quite the story.  One minute she is sophisticated and articulate and the next minute she is striking a cheesy pose for her close up or painting her toenails in rainbow order.   She is a girl with her own road map and she is the one driving.  I will totally miss the little girl who used to come and camp out at my house for weeks in the summer and do projects and make spring rolls, but I think 20 is going to be a good year for her.