There’s seven years between my younger brother and I. We were closer when we were kids but when I started college he was 11 and we had different paths in life. He fell into drugs, I’m now raising his kid… not what I planned in life. We are very different people.

Geographically? Thousands of miles away. Philosophically? Even further (she’s fundie, I’m atheist). Conversationally? Pretty close. We text, talk or video chat multiple times per week. We’re probably closer now than we have been at any point in our lives.

Not as close as I’d like and probably more close than what they’d like.

I have an older sister. We haven’t been close as long as I can remember, though my parents insist we were inseparable when we were younger. If there was some inciting incident that caused us to become estranged I can’t remember it.

It’s weird. I kinda think of myself as an only child, but then I have to remind myself I’m not. It’s probably something I should talk to a therapist about someday.