When you look at the American version of family, you get the two-car garage, the white picket fence, and the family of four that goes to church on Sunday. It's not always like this. With the divorce rate on the rise, families are becoming fragmented. Yet sometimes strong bonds between siblings can bring people closer together than ever before. However, sibling rivalries can also push someone over the edge or push someone into the deep, treacherous tides of depression. They can break the very foundation on which your family bonds were built. On the corner of my father's desk is a photograph of two rambunctious preteens, a reminder of my sister and me giggling together for what was the last time in years. We were young (she was thirteen, I was eleven) and best friends forever, so we thought at the time. The last thing I ever expected was to be hurt by my dearest friend and sister. But alas, I have learned that all wounds heal with time. One morning, not long after that legendary photo was taken, my body jolted awake in a way that scared the living daylights out of me. My body ached from head to toe, a sign that I had slept too long. School had started almost three hours ago! My mother had never been one to tolerate any of us children sleeping too much, so I knew something was terribly wrong. Tiptoeing toward the entryway, my ears picked up sounds that rang throughout the house, many voices I couldn't make out, but I knew they didn't belong to anyone I'd ever met. At that moment it was understood that my sister was gone. The voices belonged to police officers, who were talking to my mother about my older sister. She had disappeared in the middle of the night; My mother's car had also somehow evaporated... half of paper... yes, my aversion to forgiving her and her out of control behavior caused my family to fail on an epic scale. Once we were able to put our differences aside, things became much easier. But to this day, I don't think any of us have granted her complete forgiveness. However, he is slowly climbing the ladder to becoming a functioning person. We hold our breath and wait until it spirals down again. I've learned that sibling rivalry can be an incredibly powerful thing. But now our family is no longer dysfunctional because of it. We simply work together to create the support my sister needs to function. After a complete nervous breakdown, my parents finally recognized that they had not only neglected me, but also my younger sister. Slowly they started to heal the pain we went through too and I learned that time heals all wounds.