I grew up in a big family. Parties and celebrations were always huge, with tons of food, storytelling, and laughter. My childhood is centered around family, and I have made so many great memories with all of them that I will cherish forever.

One of the greatest parts of getting together with my family was the time I would get to spend with my cousins. They sat at the kid’s table with me, and we had our own “cool” conversations while the grownups did their grownup talking (and this has continued, 19 years later). We played Barbie, American Girl dolls, and imaginary games out in the yard that we now vow not to speak of. Though I never had cousins the exact same age as me, I had some who were within a couple of years, and for as long as I can remember, we have all been just like sisters (and people have mistaken us for sisters too).

My cousins were my first best friends, and have continued to be all my life. I know I can go to them with anything and they will always be there to understand and support me, no matter what. We have our group chat and our million pictures together, and more memories than you can even imagine. I wasn’t given three sisters in my immediate family, but I’m extremely lucky to have role models and great friends as cousins who I can look up to for guidance and happiness in life.

Cousins understand why you’re the kind of crazy you are, because they know all of your relatives, and just how crazy they are too. They know exactly why you do the things you do, and who in the family you take after while doing them. There are family sayings that we can trade back and forth in conversation and laugh so hard that we cry, and though we know that our family isn’t the only one that has a type of uniqueness, ours is our favorite type of uniqueness of all.

Cousins share the inside knowledge of your wild family stories, and always chime in to add the details you forgot. Whether it’s the tales of the haunted house in the Carolinas or the trips to Ireland with Nana, they remember just as well as you do what happened, and why the stories of your adventures deserve to be told at every single family gathering (and how to retell all the stories after they have been told and exaggerated just a little by the others).

They laugh with you, let you borrow their clothes, do your hair and makeup for prom or other parties, take pictures of you doing whatever you want, insist on paying for your food, want to be there for every achievement you make, take you to church in college, help you with boy/family/anything problems, want you to always be happy, let you fifth-wheel on their date time, and stick by your side no matter what you do. Cousins have a type of friend-teacher-parent role, and they are one of the best things that a big (or small) family has to offer. As your first best friends, the relationship that comes from spending childhood together is one that holds strong despite distance and age, and will continue to do so as long as we all let it.