Even though I have written for The Vermilion since my freshman year of college (I am currently in my final year), I have devoted very few articles about myself and more to what topic interests me from week to week.
I have dropped a few hints about my life for example my age, the fact I was born and raised in Lafayette. The reason I do not talk about myself in depth in my writing is because, in all honesty, I never find my life that interesting enough to devote a whole article to.
Yet, here I am finally writing about myself and not a review of an album or TV show I have been consuming. Whenever I bring up my family to people the one thing that always piques their interest is how I describe I am an only child, but not.
As the reader you might be puzzled by that statement, but let me explain. My parents had me in their early ‘40s and mid ‘30s. I am the only child of their marriage. However, I have a brother who is 16 years older than me from my mother’s first marriage.
Growing up with a sibling that I share a significant age gap with never felt odd to me. Why would it? That is my big brother and as I have gotten older we have grown closer bonding over our shared appreciation of the same music and shows.
We both had the experience growing up as the only child, so our dynamic is different. We never fought on who would get the bigger room or who would watch TV in the living room. We also do not have a sibling rivalry.
I never felt jealous of the other kids in my grade for having siblings because I also have one.
In preparation for this article my mother pulled out one of her many photo albums and I was able to see some baby pictures of myself that I have not seen before. Some of the photos we found were of my brother holding me and I can see how someone would be amazed to learn the little toddler in the photo and the teenager are siblings.
I asked my brother if he was happy to get a sibling and he said, “Yeah I totally was. I wish we were closer in age.”
We see each other on holidays and he’ll come over to the house to visit me and my parents. On my birthday we invite him out to have dinner with us to celebrate. We text each other on a semi-regular basis.
Growing up as an only child made me very close to my parents. My father in particular exposed many of the shows he watched as a child in the 1970s. Some of my fondest memories are of laughing till it hurts to classic sitcoms like “The Dick Van Dyke Show” (1961-1966), “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” (1970-1977) and “The Bob Newhart Show” (1972-1978).
My father and I’s biggest accomplishments recently in our nightly tradition of watching TV together is watching every episode of “M*A*S*H” (1972-1983) and “ER” (1994-2009). I would also be remiss if I did not give an honorable mention to two other childhood staples “I Dream of Jeannie” (1965-1970) and “Wonder Woman” (1975-1979).
Whenever a trivia competition comes up, my dad and I always crush the competition with our combined wide knowledge of various facts about history, music, movies and TV shows. I have one distinct memory from my high school sophomore English class where my teacher was surprised to learn I knew who Johnny Carson was.
My parents are the reason why I have a very deep love for The Beatles and I can remember the moment like it was yesterday when I heard my first Beatles’ song. Their movie “A Hard Day’s Night” (1964) was on and the moment I heard the opening guitar I was hooked. Fun fact: there’s a photo of me watching the movie and trying to play guitar left handed like Paul McCartney.
I can attribute my enjoyment of reading and learning to my mother being a retired school teacher and my dad showing me documentaries about many different subjects. Both of them used to bring me to story time at the public library and Barnes & Noble. I still go to the library regularly with my mom and we just wandered around looking at all the different books.
Both of my parents encouraged me to study English because they saw my interest in it from how I excelled in it at school.
When I was in elementary school the average age of the parents were in their mid 20s and early ‘30s. Like having a brother who is significantly older than me I never find it odd that parents were in their late ‘40s and early ‘50s. I believe having older parents gave me another perspective on things.
I know that if I ever need help or advice I will always have people that back me up and have my best interests at heart.