College is a stage of our lives where we are often removed from our families for the first time, but this is not always so. Many of us have siblings here, or at other schools, with whom we share very close bonds, experiences, academic interests and even professors. This piece is the third in a planned series on relationships with one’s siblings while in college. I got to know Sarah Fenn ’18 and Caroline Fenn ’16.

How, if so, did your views of each other change when you got to Kenyon?

Caroline: Well, I was abroad, so it’s only been like a week that we’ve been on campus together.

Sarah: And I don’t even see her that much. If I don’t run in to you it’s kind of like, “Are you in your room?” I don’t know. It hasn’t changed.

What is something that really annoys you about your sister?

Caroline: You probably have more than I do. *giggling*

Sarah: When we’re listening to a really good song that I actually want to listen to, she always sings, so I’m basically just listening to her singing. And she bites her nails.

Me: Is she a good singer?

Sarah: She’s a good singer.

Caroline: I would probably say the typical cliche – steals clothes, that kind of thing.

Sarah: This *gestures at sweater she’s wearing* is her sweater.

Caroline: And she’s gotten worse since we’ve been at Kenyon together.

What is something that you really love about your sister?

Sarah: Um, nothing. *giggles*

Caroline: She’s very honest. Tells me how it is. Gives it to me straight.

Sarah: I like how it’s not like a sister, like younger-sister–older-sister relationship.

Caroline: It’s like inverted, almost.

Sarah: Which might not be a good thing.

What did you think when you heard your sister was coming to Kenyon?

Caroline: She didn’t tell me forever!

Sarah: We visited with her and I [fell] in love with it and kind of just decided I wanted to go here and then I didn’t tell her when I got in because I was kind of freaked out.

Caroline: I was super happy … I was encouraging her to come.

Me: What were you freaked out about?

Sarah: I was worried that she would feel like I was encroaching on her space … ‘cuz it’s such a small school.

If you guys were pastries, what would your sister’s pastry be?

Caroline: For some reason I want to say danish. She’d be a raspberry danish.

Sarah: You’d be a cupcake.