This is a new experience for me. I have never kept a diary or a journal, and I don’t have myspace, facebook, or twitter accounts. If I wish to share something with someone, I do so directly by phone, text, or email – if not in person. I find no reason or purpose in flaunting my life publicly. That sounds kind of harsh so I will admit that talking about myself does not come natural to me.
Here, I have chosen to discuss my favorite topic … my family.
I am the daughter and sister in a family of nine. I am my parents’ first child, which means of course that the feelings of being a guinea pig are not foreign to me. Being the eldest child also means that I automatically assume the role of being the eldest sibling as well. I realize that this is common sense, but I feel the need to distinguish between them because the two roles are quite different with only some overlaps. I have six siblings, my brother who is 19 and my four sisters who are 17, 7, 3, and 2. That makes five… oh yeah, I also have a baby brother who was born last November, which makes him 6 months now. As you can tell, there is a large (ten-year) difference between two of my sisters, splitting the seven of us into two generations. My brother likes to call us three oldest, “the originals.” Even though it has been more than seven years since it was just the three of us, when I think of how many we are, I still start from three and count up – first it was to 4, then 5, 6, and now 7.
My four youngest siblings have added so much to our home. When I picture life as it was before them, I see naked rooms filled with silence. I love being a part of my big family.
I understand you have a large family, do ever have dinner at restaurants?
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine it. Last week we invited my mom, sister, and her three children out to eat at a relatively nice restaurant. They had just returned from my nephew's all-day baseball tournament and the kids were just being kids after a long day. The oldest boy was throwing paper, my niece was helping her younger brother stay sitting at the table instead of sitting on it, and this was just the first few minutes they had arrived.
I wouldn't have minded if they had ensconced us in a dark little corner, but they placed us in the center of the restaurant, right when customers walk in. I felt like we were the entertainment for the restaurant.
How do big families do it, how do family with little children do it?
The meal I had that evening followed me the entire night.