Living in a big house with a big family is the greatest thing I have ever known. I grew up in a house with two parents, my older sister, two older brothers and three dogs. We're no "19 Kids and Counting," but we're not small either.

A study done in 2004 of 20,000 kindergarteners in America showed that teachers rated students who had at least one sibling as having an edge in social skills. The study found that those kids were better at making friends, helping other kids and being more in tune to the feelings of others.

My siblings are my lifelong friends

I have good relationships with all of my siblings to this day, which has a lot to do with how we were raised. My parents taught us to count on each other and to lean on each other when we need to. Although we used to argue and fight with each other, I know that if I need anything, my brothers and sister will be there for me.

I never understood why some people like being an only child. I can't imagine living in a house without the sounds of music coming from my brothers' room, or knowing my sister was next door reading, or the sound of my mothers sewing machine, or the sound of my dad working in his workshop. Although my sister and one of my brothers don't live in the house anymore, I can't imagine growing up an only child.

I've learned to share, even when I didn't want to

Having people to share everything with is a blessing and a curse. Four people sharing a bathroom is definitely a curse, and maybe having to share the television remote with six people is a curse too. But a blessing is sharing countless memories with each other. Sitting at my brothers' track meets every weekend or having "family softball" games is a blessing.

With sharing comes compromise. We learned to compromise quickly. Often the words, "If I get the TV remote today, you can have it tomorrow when I'm not home," or, "If you unload the dishwasher, I'll load it," came out of one of our mouths daily.

Help is always in the room next to you...literally

Growing up in a large family also means when the house needs to be cleaned, we each take a room, and it gets cleaned up quickly. I'm sure my parents appreciated the extra help.

Help with school projects was always nice too. When projects were based on topics that were the same as what my siblings had to do, I always had an example to model my project after.

You always have someone to hang out with

Someone is always around the corner, not always doing important things. I always had someone to watch a movie with, play a card game or board game with or even go on a bike ride with. Having three other siblings also means that if one of them says no, there are still two other people to ask.

Growing up in a large family has proven to be wonderful. I love all of my siblings, and I couldn't imagine not having all of them around.