For this project, I initially considered creating a journal entry, but it took a turn during the drafting process. When it comes to expressing our feelings to someone, it can often be a difficult task we are faced with. I usually write my emotions out in a letter. My signature letters come with a special heading, the date, and signing off my name at the very end. It is not easy for me to verbally communicate my emotions, so when given the opportunity, I write them down. This project was a great way to exercise that habit of mine. My letters are special because they are often journal entries that I wouldn’t share with anyone. I rip out the page from my journal and give it to them in an envelope with the date of when the letter was written.
As an older sister, I wanted to create a piece that other older siblings could relate to when it comes to the love we have for our younger siblings. I chose to write a letter to my first younger sister, who was the first of my four siblings to make me a big sister. The message I am trying to convey in my letter is that sibling love is timeless and unconditional, hence the title “A Love That Is Forever.” I chose the date of February 14, 2026, because in my family, we treat Valentine’s Day like it is any other big holiday, celebrating the privilege we have to love. In some ways, I wanted to include advice and personal connections between my sister and me, while also keeping it general for the audience. The pictures included on each page represent a line in my letter that is of importance. For example, on the first page, the picture to the left is the first time I made my sister laugh, and the one on the right is the same thing, just us slightly older, demonstrating the concept of timeless. The names used in my project are the nicknames my sister and I have for each other: baby twin and Adirf. There are some lines in Spanish to connect the roots of our home language with translations provided at the end.
The sources I chose to quote from in this project had a similar trend of being songs with beautiful meanings about love, girlhood, growing up, and suffering. Only songs were chosen because my sister loves music and dancing, so those are aspects of her that I wanted to incorporate in the quotes. Two of the songs are from Disney movies that my sister and I have watched together. The other three songs are ones that I find to be very relatable and remind me of my sister when I listen to them. The themes of the songs stayed consistent throughout my letter, but the context of some of the quotes was changed to create a more positive attitude. For example, I used the line “Are you satisfied with an average life?” from the song “Are You Satisfied?” by MARINA, to propose the idea that it is okay to not be overachieving.
Although I incorporate several personal aspects in this project, my piece is plagiarism. I continuously refer to the parts of my piece that are from songs as quotes, but I don’t actually use proper quotation marks besides highlighting the words. The quotes of the songs I chose are used to build on the message I was attempting to deliver, not necessarily changing the meaning of the lyrics. The last part of the letter is a joke my sister has been telling since she was 2 years old. It is a unique part of my letter, but it is also not my original idea. Overall, this letter has so much deep meaning that could have been written without any use of plagiarism.