As young children and teenagers, most people who have siblings always seem to be arguing about this or that. In a roundabout way, there's brotherly or sisterly love built through those fights and disagreements. However, growing up and to this day, I really didn't have that problem with my two older brothers. My oldest brother is 29 years old, and my other brother is 26 years old. Since I'm almost 19 years old, the age gap between them and me never led to major fights, whether physical or verbal (however, now that I'm grown up and bigger than the two of them, I'm not sure how a fist fight would end).
When my oldest brother went off to college, I wasn't really old enough to understand the concept of college and working toward a career. I just knew that he was moving away to go school. The same happened with my other brother, except I was more knowledgable as to what college was, and I was more interested in it. But once my oldest brother graduated college and moved to Las Vegas, and my other brother was at college and eventually moved to Los Angeles, I became the only child to still live at home with my parents. Over these past few years, I learned a lot about what it was like to be an "only child." To be completely honest, I didn't really like it. Having said that, I'd like to point out that I have nothing against parents and families who only have one child.
My reasons for not enjoying my time as an "only child" were quite simple. For one, I didn't like the alone time. For those of you who know me, you know that I don't really enjoy being alone all that much. So having my two brothers living more than 1,500 miles away from home made things really boring and lonely sometimes.
Second, I felt like I was cheating my parents. This may sound odd, but it's true. I felt bad that I was the only son at home and that they didn't have the chance to see their other two sons every day like they did me. I felt bad for that fact, even thought I had no control of that.
Lastly, I just enjoyed the company that my brothers gave when they were back at home. Even though they're both family, watching a baseball game on television with your siblings is just different than watching it with your parents. For some people, that may be hard to understand, but for those of you who do understand, you know what it's like.
Having said all of this, I don't want my brothers to move back home just because they know I miss having them here, because they both have great careers in their respective locations. They're doing great, and, after living where they do, moving back to Central Illinois wouldn't sound interesting to me either.
For those of you who have siblings, I'm sure you can relate to almost all of this. You know what it's like to always have someone to pick on and joke around with. There truly is nothing like a relationship between siblings. Now that I'm taking the steps into adulthood, my brothers and I have strengthened our relationship because they've both lived what I'm going through right now, and I'm thankful for their help on all of my issues. It's a great feeling to know I have options when I need help with school, girls or whatever it may be. After living with both of my brothers for many years, and being an only child for a few years, I know what I would choose.
