The Blessing of Siblings

Siblings are a blessing. It’s not always easy to see when you are growing up because all the anger, jealousy, and competition for love and attention. I am blessed that I grew up in an extremely blended, diverse, loud, and amazing family.

My family grew when I was four, and I gained two amazing siblings who I got to spend awesome times with, box sliding down hills, making plays for our parents, laser tag, video games, and lots and lots of fighting.

I am so happy that I am so close to all my siblings still and as we grow older, I think we’ve had the unique privilege of growing closer rather than apart. Part of this is my parents annoying insistence on trying to get together for holidays no matter how difficult it is to please a million different life schedules.

I was going through my newsfeed on Facebook, and saw mostly silliness from my siblings and realized I comment on their post more than anyone else. My siblings are my best friends and part of that is mostly because they were forced to spend so much time with me as a child, and that they have grown into such great people that they are too nice to say no to spending time with me now, but I’ll pretend they actually like being around me just as much as I like to be around them.

AJ: AJ is my oldest sibling, and even though we have an 11 year age gap, we are as close as if we were born months apart. AJ helped raise me. AJ always made sure I was happy and having fun. AJ lives the furthest from me now, and though we both admit we are bad at keeping in touch with each other, our friendship is still just as strong as any of my other siblings. When we do see each other, we instantly fall back into the role of making fun of each other. As the sexually divergent children, we share a bond, because we both know we are the favorites for being the best. It’s not our fault that everyone loves us.

Stephanie: Stephanie is the worst. She was lucky enough that we spent the majority of our lives living with parents together. Because of this we probably also had the most fights. But I know that Stephanie always had my best interest in mind. She used to let me sleep in her room when she was in high school so I could stay up and watch movies with her. Today, she is the first person I call when I’m bored, just to chat and annoy her. She is also the first person I usually call when I go out, no matter what time it is in the morning.

Jack: Jack was unfortunate enough to share a room with me; lucky for him it was only a few years he had to endure Justin Timberlake posters on the wall. While Jack and I may not have been as close as children because I am way more into manly things than he was, I still have great memories of all the things we did do together. Jack always included me in whatever he was doing with his friends if I was interested. Today, I think Jack and I have a better understanding of each other, and how we function as people. Our humor matches perfectly, which is helpful that neither of us gets too offended at our tasteless jokes directed towards each other. Jack has also decided to marry a super awesome lady, who brings the right amount of his fabulous side out. I couldn’t write about Jack without mentioning her, because they complete each other.

Katie: Katie taught all of us about happiness. She was given a difficult situation, and whether she realized that or not, it never affected her attitude. Many of you probably know that Katie passed away in 2004. She fought to the end, almost constantly with a smile on her face. She will always hold a place in all of our hearts.

Jenny: Jenny was closest in age to me and we both grew up with the same general interests of Barbie, and Britney Spears, so it’s easy to say we were best friends. Jenny and I lived together throughout high school and she was also the only sibling I ever got to be in school with. We both did cheerleading together so it was difficult to separate us. Now, Jenny is my runaway when I need a drink or 5 minutes of big people conversation. She is always the first person I want to hang out with when I have free time (what the hell is free time?) She is the person I can vent to, play games with, and have fun talk about nerdy movies and books.

This post doesn’t even come close to being able to express how special each one of my siblings are, but I feel in debt to them. As the youngest sibling, everything I had and experienced as a kid was because of what my sibling got first. I wouldn’t be half as thoughtful, patient, and loving if it weren’t for them.

I feel blessed everyday that I have these people in my life to turn to at anytime for any reason.

Take a minute, and think about the relationship you have with your siblings or sibling like people. Call them, text them, Facebook them, just remind them you love them in some way. There is not schedule too busy or distance too far, that you can’t just say, “I love you” at least once a month.

Peace and Love to all of you!