The youngest, only child

By Meghan Goss

I am my dad’s youngest and my mom’s only. But I feel like both sometimes. Never really at the same time. Both the youngest and the only are spoiled. I am spoiled. But what are physical things if I don’t have my siblings to enjoy those things with. The youngest has older siblings for entertainment. I do as well. The only child has no siblings, their entertainment comes from their parents and friends, imaginary or real. This is true as well. 
I have 6 siblings, so technically I am not an only child. But the gap between our ages (mine and theirs) is much larger than the average range (the oldest is 17 years older and the one closest in age is 8 years older). My siblings can be divided by the three wives my dad had. My mom is the most current. My older sister was the youngest before me, for 8 years. She also has the attitude of the youngest sibling, not that I can entirely blame her. But we love her. 
The one that came before her, the only sibling I never got to know. The only sibling, we never got to know. I’m sure she would have been the best of all of us. 
The sibling above her, also a sister, is someone I said was my favorite sister when I was younger. She was the only one who wasn’t mean or just kind of absent in my life. We aren’t close, never really have been, but I can’t blame her entirely. She is a bit dingy; we love her all the same.
My Brother, the younger of the two, my favorite sibling. My brother was my protector, he was always there for me, always someone I can call to help me out. I still believe that today. 
The oldest sister, the perfect sibling, is someone who I never really saw, but I always admired. I looked up to her, and I still do. I am trying to make her proud of me. 
Finally, my oldest brother, the one I never knew existed up until I was about seven. The stranger, the stranger whom I love just as much as the rest of my siblings. The one where my only feeling towards them is love because I do not know this person, but I know he is family, and he is a person who deserves my love. 
I love all of my siblings, but right now I don’t like all of them. It’s probably because I am not close to some and therefore, I don’t have a big attachment to them. 
I believe a reason I don’t have a big attachment to (some of) them is because they (excluding the oldest) moved to Oklahoma when I was younger, and I didn’t get to see them all the time. Well, I didn’t see my oldest sister at all; it's okay though because we were never that close. However, my favorite sibling was there when he could be, that was nice. My other sisters were there too, the “youngest” eventually moved in with us. I became a non-only child then. Kinda. She was the older sister I needed, and I believed I would always have. That is until she gets mad at me, this sister holds a grudge, and we may be sisters, but if one (her) gets mad they usually stay mad. 
Siblings are complicated, coming from the youngest, only child.

Meghan Goss is nearing the completion of her third year as an undergraduate at Northwestern State University, where she has taken many creative writing courses. She enjoys many different genres, but her favorites would have to be fantasy and romance. She is currently working on her first literary fiction piece. Meghan would prefer to be published under the pen name Kaitlynn Gods.