When I was six years old, my life changed forever. My oldest sibling, my brother, was already married and his wife was expecting a child, a baby girl. October 3, 2002 was the day that the little ray of sunshine was born. I barely remember it, as I was very young and didn’t quite understand it, but I do remember that she cried a lot when she was born. But I didn’t care, she was going to be my newest friend and future responsibility. She was a beautiful baby and beautiful child growing up. And I loved her so much, except for the time that she peed on me when she was still potty training. Just kidding, I still loved her then too.

Soon, my life changed again when we found out my little niece would soon have a baby sister. I was eight years old and I was becoming an aunt again. I remember when she was born and she fell asleep in my arms the first time I held her. I remember when I would get so upset because she went through a phase where she would only let men hold her, but I always had my first niece during that time to hold and laugh with and talk to. Even though she was only two, we still understood each other.

Two years later, I was ten years old, and I became an aunt for the third time. This time, it was a beautiful baby boy. My oldest niece was now four years old, my youngest niece was two, and my nephew was a newborn.

It wasn’t long before I was finally allowed to babysit them, at least under the supervision of my brother. Soon, I was allowed to watch them on my own. We would play games, watch movies, take naps, and write songs because my nieces and I thought we were going to be famous one day. We went through a lot with each other. I remember a time when my nieces decided to give each other haircuts and when they got their uneven hairs cut professionally to fix the mess they made, they both had very short hair. But they still looked adorable. It wasn’t too much longer until I had short hair too and we thought it was so cool that we all had short hair.

Because we all thought we were going to be famous singers one day, and we all had short hair, we decided to make a band called The Short Hair Girls—very creative, I know. It didn’t help that we were all obsessed with the Josie and the Pussycats movie. We thought we were invincible. Having my nephew join our world, we instantly had our number one fan. Then we really thought we would be famous one day.

There are so many memories that I could list but they will never compare to the memories that I hope we make in the future. My nieces and nephew are my world and I am so happy to watch them grow up. Now that I am almost twenty years old, they are growing up and becoming their own persons, as I am still doing the same. They changed my life forever and I will always love them because they are family, they are funny, and they are the friends that will never leave.