o-dawg.

It is my sister's birthday today...Happy 33rd Birthday Olivia! I hope you celebrate kind of like Grandma would want you to...with cake and crowns!

I have been really lucky in life that I was born as her little sister. Olivia has always taken care of me.

After giving me bottles, she also sat at the dinner table with me when I refused to eat my food and everyone else had cleared their plates. We shared a room growing up and played school in the basement. She tutored me in math through hours of crying when I couldn't figure out long division, I played soccer because she did, she made me learn how to type, and made me love Ani Difranco. Visiting her in college, she introduced me to Howard Zinn and encouraged me to take photography classes. She listens and cares but also gives advice and hard opinions. She calls people out on their bullshit and she has helped me make every big decision in my life.

More than all of this though, she gave me someone to admire. Olivia is without question the most principled person I know. She lives her values. No, but really. In middle school she wrote a letter to the JCPenney Ms. Manners program my Mom had enrolled her in to tell them how sexist it was. In high school she met the Dalai Lama. In college, she organized the Justice for Janitors campaign and was a key organizer in the labor dispute. And after college, she has only continued to fight with people. Working for Unite Here and SEIU, advocating for affordable housing with FaithWorks, researching Somerville's divestment campaign at Northwestern, and helping to offer care to undocumented immigrants at the Street Level Clinic. Yes, she also spends her weekends going to protests in the likes of Whole Foods, Chase Banks and other lucky establishments. I know no other person with more conviction and empathy for others and someone who will go the street with you to fight for it.

Happy Birthday Olivia, to one of the most remarkable people I know...and not just because you're my sister!