Whether you have a small or large family if you've been given cousins you more than likely have been blessed. They start as partners in your imaginary game of doctor (a classic played in my family), to a go-to bar buddy, to a forever playdate with your own children, they're a friend who you share genetics with.

My mother came from a family of 6 children and each of her siblings had 3 children so you can only imagine our family parties are flooded with people. Growing up, I always thought it was normal to have such a large family like this. As a child, I was always looking forward to birthdays and holidays get-togethers. The memories and inside jokes are endless, the stories I could tell can go on for days. I was surrounded by this love since I was born, I was born on the younger part of the cousins and that means I had a solid amount of people to look up to and watch grow up. While they were in college, I was still in high school, and now that I'm in college they have real-life jobs. It's like a forever role model. We've all come from the same ancestry, our blessed grandparents, so we have similar likes and tendencies. But with the vast majority of numbers in the family that also means we are all individuals in our own way, and growing up surrounded by the differences really helped me become who I am today.

They're there to teach you, to support you in life, to be with you when you make a bad decision and to be with you when you clean the mess you made. They're there for the laughs, for the tears and for doing things for your grandparents and making them proud and eternally happy.

So next time you see your cousins, whether it be at Christmas or a different gathering, just appreciate them a bit more, because if you're lucky enough to have cousins, then you're just lucky.

Shout out to all my cousins.