BY FRANKIE VANSICKLE, STAFF WRITER
Having siblings is honestly the best experience you could have for a family. I could not have had a better time with my siblings when I would hang with them.
My siblings and I have such a wide range of ages. It goes the oldest at 38, 36, 28, 26, then me at 21. When I was born, my oldest sister got pregnant during her senior year of high school. That tells you the age gap between us. Personally, I am closer to her daughter than my siblings. We grew up together. No matter what, we would always be there.
My siblings helped my parents raise me when they could not help because they worked a lot to support a lot of us. All my siblings are half-siblings. My sisters and I do not share the same mom, and my brother and I do not share the same dad. They had to work more sometimes to support all of us.
As I got older, we got closer and more distant at the same time. They lived their lives with their families, and I still lived with my parents. I was still able to get those sibling experiences with my brother, who is now 28. He lived with us until he was 19. I was able to get those experiences of fighting, playing games, sitting in silence, doing nothing. I got that sometimes with my sisters, but I mostly got that from my brother.
I sometimes imagine how my life would have been if I did not have siblings. Personally, I could not see my life without my siblings. They provide so much entertainment, and seeing the experiences of what to do and what not to do in life is a part of having siblings to me. It also shows me how I should act and what I can achieve if I put the effort in.
Some of my friends who do not have siblings have a different life from mine. I was talking to a friend recently about this, and we were comparing our lives. Hers was vastly different because she did not have to worry about whether their siblings would interfere with their plans or must share something. When you have siblings, you must think about all these concepts and ideas that someone who does not have siblings does not have to worry about.
Siblings made my life for the better, and I would not want to have it any other way. Looking at others who do not have siblings, I just would not be able to handle being alone all the time and not having others to lean on when things get hard. It taught me to share my things and to share others’ time because they did not have all the time in the world. Cherish your siblings and do not take them for granted because some do not have the same experiences.
