I grew up with six siblings. Now that I am in college and spending my college years (mostly) without my siblings and that in itself has been weird - both good and bad. Here are six things I have learned while living without the monsters, I mean angels, questioning every move I make.
1. You start to miss them questioning every move you make ... Until you get home.
At home, it is a constant, "Where are you going, Alyssia?", "Why do you have your shoes on?", "Can I go?" and "Why are you going somewhere?". The questions are never ending and they are repeated several times as each sibling has to ask me personally and in that moment all I want is for them to leave me alone. When I leave my apartment now I brace myself for the 100 questions and when I realize I don't hear them anymore, it's a little unsettling but once I get home they start up again.
2. Sharing isn't caring anymore.
I have become quite selfish since I have moved out the house, as in I buy the biggest snack or dessert simply because I don't have to share. Then whenever my roommates ask for a bite or piece of whatever goodie I do have, I have to tell myself it's ok to share even though sometimes I really don't want to.
3. The quiet is sometimes too loud.
I read a lot and most of the time I read with music blasting through my earphones or with the TV on or in the Union at school and I have people ask how I do it. The only answer I can give them is that I just can, I have adapted to the noise and with six siblings, quiet isn't in their vocabulary. To this day, sitting in silence for too long creeps me out and I have to have some sense of sound to be ok.
4. You buy/make too much food.
Since I have three roommates, we had made a deal where one cooks three times a week, one does dishes and one takes out the trash every week and we rotate the jobs. Whenever it is my turn to make dinner, I find myself buying and making too much food either of my roommates to eat. We currently have a fridge that is overflowing with food and I am positive most of it is from my cooking.
5. You start to get bored easily.
At home, there is a constant state of motion. If I am not helping cooking, I am either watching Greys Anatomy with my sisters, playing Call of Duty with my brothers, yelling at the dog, helping my grandmother clean or reading a book. And if it is none of the above, I play chauffeur with the pack in tow just to get out of the house. Living alone shows just how boring my life actually can be without my siblings behind me.
6. You realize how much of their lives you start to miss out on.
I do call home and if I don't call first, my family does. I try to keep tabs on them but I am certainly not perfect. My youngest sister is four and I was shocked when I came home from my first year at school to realize she was starting to talk. She was only two at the time and she had tried to garble out words before but I had her repeating the word, 'Sister' to me over and over because I couldn't believe she knew that word. I learned through Snapchat that my brothers were in drumline at school and that was how I watched their first performance. I learned through text that my younger sisters weren't doing so well in school and giving attitude to my mother. I learned through a phone call that my younger-oldest sister had a boyfriend. No one informed me of the little things that went on because they didn't think it meant that much when in reality it did because I missed it.
Living alone has its perks but it also has its downs. I do miss my siblings but whenever they call and ask if I miss them, I'm still going to say no.
