Lydia Garrett

I was born into a family of five children. For some people, this situation would not be ideal, but for me, I would not have chosen to grow up in any other environment. It could be challenging at times, especially because I am the youngest by five years. I could be described as a “pleasant surprise,” or at least that’s what I like to think. There are four of us girls and one boy, and yes, my family desperately hoped I would be a boy as well. Even though I turned out to be a girl, it didn’t stop my brother from treating me differently. He and I were the closest for the majority of my childhood and he basically treated me like a younger brother. Due to the big age gap between my siblings and me, I grew to have a different and specific relationship with each of them. My oldest sister, for instance, who is twelve years older than me almost acted as a third parent. Even now that I am twenty years old she still can’t help but feel responsible for me.

My family dynamic plays a huge role in the person I am today, and is responsible for some of my strongest characteristics. One could assume that I would be very codependent because I had so many people around me all my life. Oddly enough, it had the opposite effect. Since my siblings are much older than me, during my formative years, I had the privilege of watching them make all the mistakes so that I didn’t have to. When I reached my early teens, most of my siblings had gone to college or moved out of the house. Though they were gone, I had already learned so much from them that I was fairly mature for my age and rarely ever got into trouble. I believe my maturity at such a young age became one of my best qualities, and I probably wouldn’t be where I am today without it. I fully attribute this strength of maturity and independence to the lessons I learned from my older siblings.