September 20, 2015 - 16:21
I have five siblings, three older and two younger. Needless to say I have always shared everything, I have shared my room, my food, my bed, and my toys. Always my toys, always with someone, most of the time willingly, other times not so much. I grew up closer to my younger siblings than my older, not because of an age gap because I'm about 2 or 3 years apart from my siblings on either side, but mostly because my older siblings would often rather take than give or share. There was a time when my older brother stole my Gameboy because he lost his, so I scratched him I grew my nails long as a way to defend myself from my older siblings who were not only older than me but much bigger as well. There was another time when my older sister would not let me have a turn on the Gamecube, so I took a cricket from outside and put it in her hair. My interactions and "Playtime," with my older siblings had more to do with defending myself and retaliating against them, than actual play.
However it was the complete opposite with my younger siblings, we all shared and got along, and in return I'd defend them against our older siblings. From the beginning, I can remember playing doll house with my younger brother Austen and having family reunions and organizing and decorating the house exactly the way we wanted it to be. When my mom remarried, and we met my other brother Gabe we happily welcomed him into our circle, both my brothers were 8 at the time while I was 11 I remember playing dolls and bears, and having families and creating intricate story lines where we'd pack up all of our children and belonging and go travel. My favorite game we used to play was called poachers. It was one that again followed an intricate storyline that we created along the way, there was a poacher named John Jefferson who I played while playing myself and a jumble of other characters, my brothers would go along with what I came up with and I'd go along with their scenes as well. The whole premise of the game was that John Jefferson was poaching animals and when we tried to stop him he began trying to poach us, we always picked up where we left off because the game was never really over. As we've grown older our stories began taking on new themes like Hogwarts, and vampires and demons, we began portraying ourselves in stickier situations and having significant others. Though my siblings and I don't play out these stories in our heads as often as we used to we're all still very fond of them when we do play. I often notice that the stories we play are reflections of ourselves, our fears, and our dreams. No matter how ridiculous they may seem to ourselves or even to each other we all find a way to make things comical and to make sure each of us is heard and listened to.
