It is fairly well known that your birth order impacts certain characteristics about you. For me, being a middle child has definitely shaped part of my identity. There are traits that I have learned from being a younger sister and watching my older sister grow up ahead of me. There are other skills that I have learned from being an older sister and guiding my younger brother his entire life. Being a middle child has allowed me to see the world through a lens that not everybody gets to use.

From an early age I learned how to be independent. While my siblings had no issue asking my parents for help with their homework and projects, I always sat alone with my work. I learned how to work on my own and act for myself which has greatly helped me in life.

Being alone and fending for myself has allowed me to develop many traits that my siblings don’t have and has allowed me to form a personality that is different from my siblings. One trait in particular that I have grown t

o be very proud of is my creativity. When I was younger I always had to entertain myself so I would create stories with my dolls or I would read books and write stories. The creativity I gained from being a middle child and being on my own has helped to shape my future as I have decided to use my creativity for my college major.

The internal strength I gained from being a middle child has also helped to define me. Everything my older sister did was celebrated because it was a first and everything my younger brother did was celebrated because it was a last. But for me, the middle child, whatever my older sister did was always expected of me and regardless if I did it better than her it was never applauded nearly as loudly. For a long time I let this bother me until I decided to let it help me instead. I’ve used this by not letting small things like praise or even criticism bother me as much as it did in the past. I have developed a sense of resilience that has guided me through life.

So many people look at being a middle child in a negative way and while I certainly can agree that it does have its downsides, not everything about being a middle child is bad. I have learned so much and developed so many skills that I have grown to be very proud of just from my birth order.