To My Brothers and Sister,

Well, congratulations! You have successfully pushed my buttons enough for me to move 870 miles away! My bedroom is now officially up for grabs, but please know that it belongs to me whenever I am at home.

There are now only four of you in the house, so you have one less person to bribe into bringing you food at night. But I would really like for you to keep using our sibling group message for those food requests -- I will love not feeling any pressure to give in.

You have provided me with sixteen very interesting years as a big sister. As frustrating, annoying, and troublesome as you could be, I like to think that we have had some pretty fun times over the years (and of course plenty of rough times, too).

Thank you for all of the times that we sat around at 1 a.m. eating and watching true-crime TV shows. Obviously I can still do that in college, but it is different now that I don’t have to worry about us waking up Mom and Dad.

Thank you for accepting my boyfriend as another brother, even if it is weird that you have Snapchat streaks or sometimes tackle him when he walks in the house. I know how much he appreciates your friendships, and I feel so fortunate that you all care about each other.

Thank you for always keeping me on my toes. I’ll probably never be able to figure out how you manage to learn all of my secrets, but at least you won’t be able to do this while I’m at college (hopefully)!

I want to apologize for how many times I have screamed that I cannot wait to move away from you. Even though I was giving you the reaction that you were probably aiming for, it was not the nicest thing for me to say. There are definitely times that I miss hearing your music blasting through the bathroom door or having you burst into my bedroom uninvited -- I am learning that somehow, three teenage boys managed to often be louder than a dorm hall full of girls!

I want you all to know that I have always respected you. Whether it be your academic excellence, insane basketball talent, or passion for what you believe in, there are so many admirable qualities that you each possess. And although you are also masters at being frustrating, the positive aspects of your personalities can be quite overwhelming. I am sorry that I have never showed you how much I really do admire you, and I hope you know how excited I am to see you all keep growing up. I’m not sure when you’ll be up to visit me at school, but I am so eager to show off my younger siblings.

I’m sorry for being all emotional; I know it’s not your favorite thing in the world. I’ll finish this with one more thank you:

Thank you for being the enemies that I could not live without.