(Not pictured in cover photo: Samuel Grantz).

I was the youngest of my cousins until I was 16-years-old, so even though this fact doesn't technically hold true anymore--I have two baby cousins now, hehe — I went through a lot of important periods of my life being the youngest, which lead to some of the things I will be talking about. I was blessed with a big family on my mom's side. When all of us are together, there are at least 20 of us. I may be forgetting someone--I really hope not. You all know I love you. Some of my best memories in life are the family vacations we would all take together at Christmas, or the never-ending euchre tournaments that would pop up after we stuffed our faces at Thanksgiving. My relatives are a bunch of crazy wonderful people who are ridiculously fun to be around. Honestly, you should be a little jealous. Just letting you know. However, being the youngest of my cousins on my mom's side for so long has definitely been a unique experience.

For starters, one of the perks of being the youngest is the fact that a lot of the big events in my life — mostly the college transition — were old news in the family, so there was no need for my parents to be too anxious about it. They were definitely sad for sure, but I wouldn't doubt that the transition was a little easier for them because they'd watched five other people do it before me. Not a huge deal--procedural memory if you will.

One of my cousins is getting married in June — don't touch me I am too excited for this — so even though it's only the first wedding that my relatives are putting together (props to my aunt, uncle, and cousin for that) the next ones can only get somewhat easier from here. I mean, I'm 20-years-old. I don't plan on getting married for a while. Plenty of time to get that aspect of our lives a little more figured out.

Along with all of those logistics, it's so nice having multiple people who are older than me and who have been through or are going through relatively the same period of life that I am. It helps to be able to talk about what we're going through and get some advice when I don't know what to do. Just over this past weekend, a couple of my older cousins listened to my boy life and gave me some pointers. Not a bad gig to get some tips from someone who is engaged, am I right? We don't live around each other, so we're not completely invested in every second of each other's lives like my friends and I are at school — getting that outside perspective is great when things are going on in your social life that you just can't figure out on your own. They get you and they care and that's what's awesome about it.

My cousins and I are also in a group chat that is sporadically used, but when it is, it usually just puts a huge smile on my face. A lot of times we just end up sending pictures to each other of where we are and what we're doing in that random moment that someone decided to text the group chat. (It's usually me let's be honest, but I just miss them. Leave me alone). It's a wonderful way to catch up with them for a couple minutes and see what's going on in a normal day for them. It makes it feel like we're all a bit closer even if we're spread throughout the state. This is turning into a bragging session about my cousins. Back to the main points now.

For a long time, I only had one male cousin (now there are two total) so it was absolutely fantastic when my other older cousins went through their closets and let me take what I wanted when they were going to just take them to Goodwill. Some people complain about hand-me-downs, but, like, who doesn't love free clothes when you're in high school? I mean c'mon.

Aside from all of these amazing upsides to being the youngest of my cousins, there are some downsides to it as well. As wonderful as it is that my older cousins have gone through and paved the way for a lot of monumental experiences in our adolescent lives, I do feel like the hype of these accomplishments slowly dwindles as more and more of us go through the same things. For example, I think almost every single one of my out-of-state relatives went to my two oldest cousins' graduation parties, but as more and more of us graduated, that number grew fewer and fewer and none of them came to mine. I was sad about it only because when I learned what a graduation party was through my cousins' parties, it planted an expectation in my mind that couldn't realistically be met. It's expensive. It really wouldn't make sense for them to fly across the country to watch me graduate and come eat some cake at a party in my driveway, but the thought of it always made me really happy, so when it didn't happen it was just a little discouraging.

Along with that, it is a little frustrating always being seen as the "kid" or the "baby" of the family. I'm halfway through my undergrad, but some of my relatives still marvel at some of the things that I've grown up to accomplish — graduate high school, go to college, etc.--that I don't remember them reacting to with my older cousins. It's not the fact that it's strange that I've been able to accomplish these things in my life, it's just the fact that I'm old enough for them to happen to me "already."

I couldn't have asked for a better family to grow up around. We're all so close, we're all friends and we all care about each other so much. Family time is something I never think about needing while I'm away at school and then as soon as it happens and we're all sitting around a bonfire eating Jet's pizza, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world. They are people that have been in my life since the day I was born, will always be there for me and will always be my biggest cheerleaders and I am so grateful for that type of support system.

(To my relatives that might read this: I love you with all of my being. Thank you for being in my life and supporting me as I start making this crazy transition into adulthood. You're all amazing. ~Love, Jena)