Emma McCurry

The notorious middle child. The world unanimously mourns for the child that is burdened with this role. I try to understand the reasoning- the neglect and the having to follow in someone else's footsteps. But what about the child that has to create those footsteps? Personally, I think the oldest child has it just as hard, or maybe even worse than the middle child. As you can probably guess, I myself am the oldest child. I am a firm believer that I would not be the same person as I am now if I didn't grow up with younger siblings. I sometimes refer to myself as the family guinea pig because growing up, I endured everything life threw at me with little guidance. Of course, my parents provided me with as much wisdom as they could, but they are both immigrants and did not live through the same experiences as children in the United States did. My parents are incredibly hard-working and spend most of their days in the office, so I often found myself helping out around the house. If I had plans to go somewhere but my little sister needed someone to be home with her, I was expected to cancel my plans. Not my middle-child brother, who is perfectly capable of watching her, but me. Although canceling my plans seemed equivalent to the world ending, I have no regrets. I learned to be a leader, I learned how to care for others, and I learned that there is more in this world than just myself. I would never change the fact that I am the eldest, in fact, I give my role full credit for making me the person I am today.