Bigging Up My Brother

When brothers agree, no fortress is so strong as their common life.
~Antisthenes

My brothers are my brothers are my brothers. Growing up I often wished I was an only child. My parents had 5 children. My sister who is 8 1/2 years older than me, then me, then the twins who are 20 months younger than me, then my youngest brother who is 8 years younger than me. 4 boys and 1 girl. I had to share a lot of stuff and I never had personal space or privacy. The fact that three of us were so close in age we went to elementary, high school and college together. It seemed I could never get away from my brothers.

Looking back on my childhood, I don't think I would have it any other way. I'm grateful for coming from a large family. Thinking back to high school, none of the neighborhood bullies ever fucked with us because they knew if you messed with one of us then you had to deal with the wrath of all us. We got into so many shenanigans and adventures as children. I know my mom wondered why she was cursed blessed to have so many boys. Now that we are all adults (my youngest brother turned 18 2 weeks ago) our relationship has changed yet remained the same in a lot of ways. We still fight a lot. No one can get under my skin like my brothers can, but no outside person can mess with any of us and not answer to ALL of us (experienced this a couple times when I was home for Christmas).

I'm a second generation Nigerian so I wasn't as fortunate to grow up with most of my cousins so I'm grateful that I had a large immediate family and brothers that I love even though they get on my damn nerves often.