He Ain't Heavy...

If you haven't kept count,

I come from a family of 6 kids,

and I am number 2.

Mom always planned well and had us in pairs.

Because of this, we have mini-factions among the siblings.

The youngest, Rachel, has divided us up as:

The Big Kids, The Girls, and The Littles.

We've all been through those sibling phases.

First you love the new interesting baby,

then you resent it,

then you learn to play together,

then you hate each other,

and finally, reunite as best friends.

The oddly tight-knit love we have for our "pair" sibling is less weird (bromantic)

and more annoying, especially if you ask anyone who spends time with us.

We literally finish each others' sentences,

and often have our own "language."

Both my and John's spouse have attested that we are unbearable to be around as a pair.

I guess 20+ years of sharing brains will do that.

The other siblings haven't quite gotten on our level yet,

but I imagine, given time, they will soon enough.

We've all learned a lot from each other-

patience, responsibility, compassion, teamwork, selflessness,

and of course, how to beat the crap out of someone.

Whether it was beating each other, or that neighbor kid who made fun of a younger kid,

we scrapped a lot, and learned how to handle those situations.

Mostly we learned how to prevent them,

but should the problem arise, we knew how to end it pretty quick.

Luckily these things didn't happen often.

We also learned what it was like to have a support system.

Despite how much we may drive each other mad,

or the people around us mad,

I am ever so grateful to have my siblings.