The usual story of siblings goes as follows: they play together when they’re young, annoy each other as kids, hate each other as teens and are friendly when they’re adults.
However, the story changes when siblings have a significant age gap. I have two older siblings: my sister who is six years older than me and my brother who is 10 years older than me.
My siblings only have a three and a half year age gap, so they followed the “usual story,” and fought when they were young. However, they couldn’t fight with me. Try to imagine a 14-year-old and a 4-year-old wrestling; it’s no question who would win. Never having competition when I was a kid made me not want to compete with others when I grew up. Whether it was volleyball, spelling bees or band, I quit because I never learned from my siblings to like competition.
Instead of fighting, I copied everything they did — they’re my role models, after all. I’m right-handed, but I hold a knife with my left hand because I copied my left-handed sister. I would try to mimic all of the little grown-up things my siblings did and said, accelerating my maturity at a younger age than normal.
Even though the age gap was obvious, I still had difficulty understanding just how old my siblings were when I was little. In fifth grade, I was excited to graduate elementary school and finally be in the “big kids school” with my sister. I was disappointed when sixth grade came and she had just graduated high school.
Both of my parents have full time jobs, so my sister and I ended up spending lots of time together. She helped me with homework, bought me dinner and we formed a close bond that we still have today. When my sister moved out for college, I was saddened and missed my older sister for five years.
Having adult siblings who are working and in college became lonely after a while.
I’m not an only child, but I was the only child.
Even all of my cousins who live in the U.S. are older than me. I’ve never been good at small talk, so at family gatherings, I liked to sit by my siblings and talk with them to our cousins. Now, I usually sit in silence and listen to everyone talk to each other.
The age gap with my whole family drew me to my best friends: they were the first people in my life who were around my age who I had similar interests to. We play games every night, talk every day and know everything about each other. I love my friends with my whole heart, but nothing can replace a bond between siblings.
Though we’re different in many ways, I’m glad to have grown up with such loving and annoyingly protective older siblings. They made me who I am today, and will continue to be my role models into my own adulthood.
