When my brother and I were in elementary school, we had recess on playground structures that were still made of wood instead of the hard plastics that are now quite pervasive. One day, I noticed my brother had started to weep. Being the older sister, I tried to help. He held out his hand. A splinter had lodged into the palm of his hand. I noticed the direction of the splinter and actually had a bobby pin on me. I was scared that I would hurt him and make him cry even more. He was scared, too. I told him that I used this method before. I patiently scraped the covering to the splinter, thinning it out enough to eventually retrieve the splinter. I felt so proud of myself, being able to free him from his tears and the pain that was causing him to cry. I felt like a REAL big sister that day, as if I had become 3 years older than I was. In fact, I felt HUGE.