Influence to the Tenth Degree On a rather cold spring day in March 1998, seven restless children found themselves in the driveway of their new home to big welcoming arms of their new set of parents and three new siblings. Like new dogs in a dog park, we ran up to each other and stared at one another, to get a feel as see how each of us were, 10 different personalities, some shy, reserved and others more blunt and outgoing. A melting pot of two different upbringings, cultures and ways of life, we all became one two years later and would be adopted into our forever home. Growing up as military brat children, our father was gone for long periods of time, while our mother worked long hours as a nurse in our one and only local hospital.
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Coming from such a large family, if you were not the oldest or the youngest, you needed to do something to stand out to your family and friends. A psychologist and an associate professor at the College of New Jersey, Jeanine Vivona has stated: “Kids do this to minimize rivalry with one another.” My older sister had the brains, while my younger sister was the “baby” who did no wrong. We constantly battled with one another for the attention of my parents, which I believe resulted in us being successful in our own talents. While my older brothers turned to partying and my younger siblings turned to musical talents and agriculture, I differentiated myself by turning to sports. I was the town athlete who lived for Friday nights to get my 10 seconds of fame from my parents. Another constant battle came from sharing the minimal resources we had, the one Xbox, who got the bathrooms first and things like who got the last bowl of cereal. My siblings and I had to learn how to sweet talk one another and manipulate each other into having something we did not get to first. We learned at an early age how to barter because my parents did not spoil us by buying one of the same things for all ten of us. In the article “6 Ways Your Siblings Make You Who You Are” they quote Jonathan Capsi, Ph.D. saying “Siblings provide daily practice in understanding the minds of others”. How I talked to one of my siblings is not how I talked to all of them. I had to learn different traits and different approaches to each one of them. To this day, I have been able to easily approach strangers and can grasp pretty quickly on in the conversation how to come at someone and converse with them. I can imagine growing up without any siblings, my ability to do so would not be
Coming from such a large family, if you were not the oldest or the youngest, you needed to do something to stand out to your family and friends. A psychologist and an associate professor at the College of New Jersey, Jeanine Vivona has stated: “Kids do this to minimize rivalry with one another.” My older sister had the brains, while my younger sister was the “baby” who did no wrong. We constantly battled with one another for the attention of my parents, which I believe resulted in us being successful in our own talents. While my older brothers turned to partying and my younger siblings turned to musical talents and agriculture, I differentiated myself by turning to sports. I was the town athlete who lived for Friday nights to get my 10 seconds of fame from my parents. Another constant battle came from sharing the minimal resources we had, the one Xbox, who got the bathrooms first and things like who got the last bowl of cereal. My siblings and I had to learn how to sweet talk one another and manipulate each other into having something we did not get to first. We learned at an early age how to barter because my parents did not spoil us by buying one of the same things for all ten of us. In the article “6 Ways Your Siblings Make You Who You Are” they quote Jonathan Capsi, Ph.D. saying “Siblings provide daily practice in understanding the minds of others”. How I talked to one of my siblings is not how I talked to all of them. I had to learn different traits and different approaches to each one of them. To this day, I have been able to easily approach strangers and can grasp pretty quickly on in the conversation how to come at someone and converse with them. I can imagine growing up without any siblings, my ability to do so would not be