For the past 22 years, whenever I meet someone new, I always get the burning question of "do you have any siblings?" and after I answer no, the response is always "you are so lucky." I understand it's a big deal for people to say that, but I am the total opposite; I have always wondered what it would be like to have a sibling or two. I would be a role model to them or even vice versa. I learned to be a role model in other things in my life from school clubs and teams to have the younger people to look up to.

I wouldn't be so bored because I was around adults for the majority of my childhood, and all I had to entertain me were stuffed animals that didn't talk back to me and the endless hours of television re-runs that will never get old. People have misconceptions about being an only child, including that I am spoiled and get everything I want with a snap of a finger, but that is not the case. I have to work for what I have and to make a living. I think it is a learning curve to not grow up without siblings because I never had that young person close in my age to be a role model. Everyone was older than I am, which was awkward at holiday parties because during every adult conversation I was always silent eating my food because I had no idea what they were talking about.

I never had the experience of a sibling as a best friend or cousins close to my age. I was always the youngest one on holidays and special family outings. What I have learned from growing up as an only child includes manners that I have carried with me into becoming the person that I am today. To learn to talk when it is my turn and so on, I think being an only child also shaped me as a person of who I am today because it helped me become more open to meeting new people.

Growing up as an only child has molded me into a loyal and caring person, just like my parents taught me. That is why I am so loyal to my friends: because of what I learned from my family. Sometimes being the only child isn't that bad. I got great friends out of it and the love of my family.