I am a middle child. I was born two years after my sister Meredith, and Caleigh came six years after me. Within my family and friends, I am known as the quiet, quintessential middle child. For the first 16 years of my life, I was always an afterthought to the craziness of the first-born and the baby of the family, and I loved it‒ it made me independent and self-reliant. I was very comfortable being the easy-going child, happily accepting anything that came my way. I have never felt that my parents loved me any less; they just never had to worry about me as much as they did my sisters, with their stubbornness and constant need for attention. My "hakuna matata" lifestyle, as my father affectionately calls it, reached all aspects of my life, not
