There are times in all our lives when we need someone to tell us that everything will be alright. Whether it’s a parent, partner, sibling or the person down at your local shop ... it doesn’t really matter. It’s just someone taking the time to reassure you that however bad things get, life will still go on.

For me, these people are my sisters; the three girls who grew with me to become the women we are today. They know me through and through and I them. From the shared childhood with a struggling single mother who couldn’t give us everything she wanted to, a father who didn’t know how to be one, and later the death of a mother who ultimately gave us everything we needed, the legacy of these challenges has become a strength for us today. We have each carved out our own paths and found success, but we share more than what we could possibly imagine and it keeps our links strong and grounded.

Let me tell you a little bit about them. The eldest is a teacher and mother of three who strives to be the best in everything that she does — and she always succeeds. She has been a great inspiration to the rest of us and is a wonderful mother who has created a beautiful and secure life for her children. I’m the second born. The third in line is a woman with a heart as big and as deep as the Pacific Ocean and who is such a beautiful and caring person that she became a mental health nurse — looking after those most vulnerable members of society. The youngest in our family is a breath of fresh air and full of life and vitality. She kept our mother on her toes when she was a child. She’s a staff nurse at a hospital in Manchester. It’s funny (or maybe telling) that our mother had also been a nurse.

To get back to my story about supportive people, my sister found me in the living room last week with my head in my hands. With essays and readings piling up in my university course, the little, insecure part of my brain that is terrified of failure and humiliation was getting attention from the usually rational and optimistic larger part.

She asked me what was wrong and I told her how I was feeling. It was great to get it off my chest and I felt much better afterwards. She said that what I was doing was brave and that I did have the ability to do it and that everything would be alright.

Just being able to speak about our fears and insecurities is enough to see the bigger picture and feel better. Verbalising the problems gives them a tangible quality that somehow reduces their potency and enables us to see exactly what we are dealing with. It’s funny how our imaginations can create massive emotional quagmires out of something that in reality may not be half as bad. My sister helped me put things in perspective and look past these issues to my goal. Nothing is ever as bad as our minds can make it and this is something I hope to keep with me over the next few weeks. But I cannot imagine life without my sisters and despite the arguments and the different views we have on various things in life, we know we’ll always be there for each other. Whether it’s to talk problems through or even gossip about whatever we feel like, having someone there to do these things with is the greatest gift. And it is something that our mother gave us. If she were here today, she would be extremely proud of her daughters. I can imagine her now, rolling her eyes at the silliness of our arguments and telling us to quit fighting — everything will be alright.

Christina Curran is a journalist currently studying a Masters in International Relations at Queen’s University, Belfast.