If you're lucky, you'll get this experience too.
Coming from a big family, I have too many cousins to even attempt to give you a number. But what I can tell you is that the relationships I have with the ones I'm close to are something I wouldn't trade for the world.
Here are six reasons why:
They're your built-in best friends! Hello!
Cliche as it is, cousins are your first friends, and because you kind of have to see them on the regular for your entire life, you'll always be friends with them. Whether you like it or not.
Sometimes, in a big family, it's just a matter of finding allies.
They will dish on annoying family members with you
Yeah, I can't even begin to tell you how many times my (favorite haha whoops) cousin has sent me a mutual family dislike's Instagram post and vice versa. And unlike your mom or your aunt, they will laugh at it with you instead of getting onto you because "they're family and you have to like them…"
They will give you all the tea when you miss family gatherings...
When you have a big, crazy, in-your-face Lebanese family like I do, there are about six different family sagas going on at any given moment and when you miss out on one gathering, things can get confusing.
Thankfully, you can get the equivalent of a live-tweet from your favorite cousin.
They can very easily be blackmailed because you have embarrassing baby pictures of them (but they also have the same, so proceed with caution...)
This one is just too good to be true. I have endless amounts of embarrassing baby pictures of my cousins and I'm not going to lie and say I don't threaten to put them on social media when they don't do what I want.
What? Life's a game, you gotta learn how to play.
They will always be there for you...
...because they have to be.
Like I said in my first point, you have to see them regularly for your entire life, so they'll always be there for you even if they don't want to be. And even if you fight, you'll have to get over it before you have to see them on Sunday because you have no choice but to present a unified front in front of the battle zone that is family dinner.
They will always be your No. 1 supporter
One good thing about being close with your family members is that they'll always be straight with you. You can always turn to your closest cousins and ask for advice or input and know they're going to be 100% honest. Probably too honest. Sometimes it hurts, but you end up better for it.
And you always know that they'll be there for you, cheering you on from the front row. Whether it's by orchestrating a family wave whenever you walk across the stage at graduation (yes, this actually happened), or screaming with you over the phone when something good happens, they'll always be just as excited as you are.
