I am the youngest child in a large family. I didn’t realize it until college how dependent I was on people. I need people around me for happiness. I am always on the lookout to include new people to spend time with and I enjoy connecting other people. I like to have this fullness around me because as the youngest child, one-by-one my siblings left me. Year by year, a sibling would graduate from high school and leave for college, leaving me with one less friend and confidant until it was just me and my mom. While it is a story of loss, it was just a rite of birth order. Because of it, I cherish friendships and those around me, knowing that it might be temporary. And so it goes, I have a child of my own. And someday he’ll leave me too.