Never alone
I have two younger sisters, so I grew up sharing bedrooms, bathrooms, clothes (grudgingly), jewelry, accessories, friends, and just about everything else you can imagine. Because of this, I am usually able to adapt to other peoples' likes and dislikes - temporarily, at least. My husband, Gary, is the same way, as he grew up the youngest of three boys. I think that having siblings is a great way to prepare individuals for life in the real world where most of the time, they won't get their own way.Don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking only children. In fact, as a sibling, I can honestly say that I envied their status many times in my life, especially during my childhood. My best friend is an only child, so I have had an up-close look into just how good she had it. Privacy and personal space have been enigmas to me, but she always seemed to have an abundant supply of both.
When I left home at the age of 18, I moved directly into a dorm room at Ohio State in Columbus where I lived with two other girls my freshman year. That experience really made me realize how much privacy I actually had taken for granted when I lived at home. I went from sharing a bathroom with two sisters to sharing a bathroom with 30 strangers. I can't imagine how difficult that transition must have been for an only child...
Except for a one month stretch when my three roommates all moved home for winter break and I stayed in my apartment in Columbus to earn some extra money waiting tables at Max & Erma's, I have never really lived alone. Someone else has always been around.
I have become accustomed to setting something down in a specific location only to wonder where it could be just moments later - and not because I'm forgetful, but because someone inevitably came by after me and moved it. And I am all too used to finding my possessions in a less than perfect state than I have left them. I can't count how many times I have opened the refrigerator only to find that we are out of something I know we had last time I checked. Most of the time, I can shrug these things off, but I admit, sometimes I lose my temper.
As a child and especially as a teenager, I know I harbored quite a lot of resentment toward my sisters. Sometimes, it seemed that everyone was glad they were around but me. They were always doing something cuter or funnier or better than me, and although I know this might sound absurd, I often felt like they were put on this earth just to bother me. I also know for a fact that I was not always their favorite person in the world, no matter how many times my parents tried to tell me that they both wanted to be just like me.
By my description, it might seem like having siblings might make people less considerate of others. That is definitely not the case. When you only have one shower and one blow-dryer and three girls who need to get ready for school in the morning, you learn to toss modesty out the window right along with doing anything at a slow pace so that you can all do what you need to do and get to where you need to be.
If a sister was late getting ready for school, we were all late arriving at school and were all, therefore, in trouble. In fact, I will never forget when one of the principals at Wooster High School attempted to give me a suspension for being late to school - not because I was ever counted tardy, but because my sister was tardy and I drove her to school. That situation didn't turn out very well, and I still hold a grudge against that miserable principal, but I like to think my sister tried a little harder to be in my car on time in the mornings following it. (Then again, my threats to leave her behind might have also been a motivator.)
The three of us are as different as our hair types <Click NEXT above my photo to the right for visual proof> (mine is wavy, Lauren's is incredibly curly and Katie's is poker straight), but one look at the three of us together, so I'm told, and you know we're sisters. The relation is probably even more evident if you spend any amount of time watching us interact. No friends can pick on each other as relentlessly and not become upset, or share a seemingly stupid inside joke and laugh so hard you cry, or make one simple remark with just the right facial expression and get your point across to one another more accurately than any long explanation could.
As I grow older, more and more I am appreciating that a relationship between siblings is one of the most special a person could ever experience. The inside jokes, the knowing looks and the unspoken understandings are just some of the many unique experiences you get to have when you share your childhood with other people. My sisters and I all have fond memories of many of the same people and places and when one of our memory is a little cloudy, we know the others will always be there to remind us, for better or worse.