Middle children are often regarded as the most different individuals in any family. Specifically, we are the ones who are given less attention than our younger or older siblings, so we are driven to seek it elsewhere- and that is the honest truth. Especially in my family, and please don’t get me wrong-I have always felt extremely loved from both of my parents- me and my sisters have definitely succumbed to each of our familial roles. My older sister, about two and a half years older than me and turning 24 in a couple of days, definitely has that fierce, leader-like personality characteristic of the eldest born. My other sister, about two and a half years younger than me is, to put it simply, the most spoiled out of the bunch- but I love her just the same. Unfortunately, I just ended up with short end of the stick, so I had to learn how to deal with it from an early age.
I was given my older sister’s hand-me-downs while I watched my younger sister’s every need get nurtured. (I can still hear her piercing cry as I write this. The painful memories...) Literally, she cried about everything, and my older sister had such a strong, rebellious personality, I learned to become much more passive, especially because I would get yelled at whenever I expressed behaviors similar to my sisters- simply because I was the most easy to discipline. In some cases, I would definitely feel a little left out, but this just comes with the territory of being in the middle. It wasn’t until I hit high school that I really had enough. I began to act out, doing things a high schooler should never, ever do. I began to ignore my mother and father the same way I had always felt that they had ignored me, dismissing conversation with them whenever they looked in my direction. It became a lonely existence, and even lonelier during the periods my mother grounded me for misbehaving.
It wasn’t until the death of my father that I really snapped out of it. I realized that I had to stop acting this way because, in the real world, no one’s going to feel sorry for me, no matter what my background is. Yes, it was tough being in the middle, but you have to learn to handle the cards your dealt, no matter what. Looking back, and please don’t get me wrong because I love my parents more than anything, I learned very much about parenting and I know, when I have kids-in a very, very, very long time, that there are many methods and precautions I will take that my parents hadn’t. I will know how to handle a middle child. I do not blame my parents for the way they raised me at all, I am so thankful for the morals, values, and ethics they taught me. I am just empathetic to any middle child because of the sense of unhappiness I felt throughout much of my life. Despite this, it allowed me the time to cultivate many talents and interests my sisters haven’t developed. Although they are both very bright individuals, I have distinctly different hobbies and passions than they do, and ones they will probably never possess. I am a writer with a very creative streak, whereas both of my sisters have adopted more logical, straight-laced career paths. I am not disparaging the intentions of my sisters by any means, I love them more than anything. I really do not know what I would do without my sisters and I am so blessed to have people in my life who love me unconditionally as well. I just know how it feels to be the underdog in the family, receiving blame for every misstep, wrong choice, and fault, all the while feeling like no one is paying much attention to you. In any case, I would never change a thing that I went through because it has made me the person that I am now. I am a much better, more open minded person than many people I know, and for that quality, I am so, so grateful.
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