Dear Younger Siblings,

Everyone always talks about how helpful their older siblings have been in their lives, and I am no different. My older sister has been one of my closest friends and mentors, but I think it's time the younger siblings get their day in the sun too. Their whole lives, three of my younger siblings have been known as "the little kids." They are in high school and college now but I will never stop calling them by their collective name. So little kids, thank you for:

1. Reminding me not to immediately jump on the bandwagon with every trend that hits the newsstand. When you see your younger siblings following a trend of their age group and cringe it reminds you to take a step back and look at your own peers and the cringe-worthy things you are all taking part in at the moment.

2.Thank you for being my excuse to watch kids movies far past the appropriate age because I am not sure if I would have survived without getting answers on this whole Finding Dory business.

3.Thank you for being my friends when I come home from school and need someone to hang out with.

4.Thank you for being dumb so when I am having a bad day I can take it out on you guy without having to worry if it will ruin our friendship.

5. Thank you for being my cheering squad at my games, and thank you for letting me re-live my glory days by aggressively cheering you on when I come to visit.

I have been lucky enough to have a fourth younger brother who is 16 years younger than me and let me tell you, my whole family has a whole lot to thank that little guy for. So littlest brother (who I lovingly refer to as Chunk Mayne),

Thank you for bringing our family together at a time when we could have drifted apart. When Chunk Mayne was born my older sister was 18, I was 16, and "the little kids" were between 10-13 years old and it was a point in time when we really all had our own things going on. Mary was off to college in a year, I had my license and the little kids no longer needed babysitters. We have always been a close family and that wasn't changing, but it was a turning point that could have led us all out of the house and in our own directions. Then came Mayne. Now we always make excuses to come home. To see him on his first day of school, to be on the sidelines at his first football games, and to force him to give us a million hugs. Because of all this we have become closer with each other (even at times sharing rooms with double bunk beds) in order to have the same kind of friendship with him that we always enjoyed with each other growing up. So thank you Mayne for reminding us everyday how great growing up in our family was and is.

So to all younger siblings:

6. Thank you for laughing at my jokes even when you don't understand them. I might call you out for not understanding it but I am glad someone laughed.

7. Thank you for taking the focus off me and onto you when you do something dumb so mom and dad forget about that dumb thing I did.

8. Thank you for not going missing when I babysat you.

9. Thank you for making road trips longer because you couldn't wait another 10 minutes to go to the bathroom. So that one may sound sarcastic, but it's not. Some of my favorite memories growing up were the road trips my family took over the years listening to whatever music was on our dad's "PC tunes 2006" CDs.

10. Finally, and most importantly, thank you for being my buds.

From,

The Older Siblings