In elementary school and middle school, we were occasionally given projects that required us to talk about our families. A lot of my friends had siblings so it was no surprise to everyone when they found out I had siblings as well. The thing that really surprised them was when I told them I have four brothers: three older and one younger.

This was especially surprising to the other girls, because most of them had at least one older or younger sister. They would tell me about sharing clothes, toys, and makeup; and the ones with older sisters had someone to give them advice about boys and dating.

Growing up it would bother me sometimes that I didn’t have a sister. Yet I never begged my parents to try for another baby in hopes that it would be a girl because I knew that it would not work; my mom already had six-year-old me and my two-year-old younger brother to look after whenever I wasn’t at school. After my initial disappointment and anger from realizing that I would never have a sister of my own, I realized that being the only girl in the family wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

I never had to worry about hand-me-downs. My older brothers didn’t have bad taste in clothing, but since they were so much older than me that it would take years for their clothes to even fit me. My mom never had a problem with this, in fact she seemed to enjoy shopping for girls’ clothing, whenever we had dress down days at my school she would always pick out my outfits.

I also got the opportunity to learn about my brothers’ interests and in time, develop an interest for some of the same things that they enjoyed. So I never felt weird or out of place when we attended a major league baseball game, and I thoroughly enjoyed playing video games on the Xbox and the PlayStation.

Of course I still had more girly interests growing up like makeup and shopping, but it was nice to know that my brothers and I had things to talk about and we could do things that we all liked together.

Growing up surrounded by boys also showed me how rough they can play. I still remember being four or five years old and seeing my older brothers rough-housing with each other; I may have even tried to get involved a few times. I don’t remember why, but looking back at it now, I guess little me just wanted to prove she could be tough too.

Even as I got older it wasn’t just my older brothers that liked to play rough. I can still remember the many times me and my younger brother would get into little fights; which of course, would always result in both of us getting into trouble. I wouldn’t change any of it though, because in a way, it gave me a thicker skin.

We are all grown up now; two of my older brothers are now married and have kids of their own. The other two still live with me and my parents, but one is away at school, and the other works a lot. Our lives are usually busy so we don’t always get to spend time together like we did when we were younger, but that never changes the fact that we’re siblings.

It has always been an interesting experience growing up surrounded by boys, but I would never want to change it. Having brothers helped me because it shaped me as a person. It helped me realize that I never needed to be labeled as a “tom boy” or a “girly girl.” I can say that I call myself a “gamer girl”, and I know more about baseball than most girls probably do, but that’s okay, because I enjoy it and it is part of who I am. And even as we get older I know there’s always going to be someone to go to a concert or a new Star Wars movie with.