I Have 13 Siblings

My name is Daniel. I have ten brothers and three sisters. I'll just answer the questions you would ask in person first. All from the same parents. No twins. Yes, they're done having kids. I'm the fifth oldest. There was always someone to spend time with. I'm currently the oldest at home. I've talked about my family a lot, so I know that's usually where the topic dies until I'm told about your mom's or dad's equally-abnormally-large family that's almost as large.

My best friends are my brothers. My sisters are pretty cool, too, but I definitely argue with the younger two more often than anyone I've ever known. Bear with me, but I'd like to dedicate a sentence or two to each family member, starting with the oldest siblings down to the youngest, then hit the parents at the end.

Adam is my oldest brother and he is an incredibly easy person to get along with. He likes making people feel comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time, but he sets a great example for personality traits.

Ben was always the mean brother growing up, but he matured eventually; we have a lot in common and can laugh about It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia quotes forever. His son, Bo, who just turned one year old, also happens to be incredibly close to me, so it has helped bring us closer together.

Abby is my only older sister but she likes to treat us like we're her kids. She somehow always has a personal story to tell to relate to whatever we're going through. She also takes 15 minutes to organize one family picture and said some pretty vulgar things to us on Easter this year when the sun wasn't helping the situation.

Thomas is probably my best friend. I was his best man at his wedding and our senses of humor are identical. He's lived out of town since he got married, so it's always great when he comes home because we make each other laugh like no one else in the world can.

(Me)

Joseph and I were really close growing up. We played baseball or video games together so often that it's crazy to think how much we've drifted since high school. He moved to Colorado to help take care of our cousin's baby while they worked, and I've really only seen him three times in the last year and a half.

Olivia is so impressionable by our generation. She probably cares more about having more Instagram followers and likes than actual close friends to rely on, but one of the things she loves to complain about is how she has no friends (which is not true). We get along fine, but every family has a sister that takes a lot of crap for the way she handles herself.

Luke is a pretty quiet guy and he's always working on something, either at his job or doing home renovations. Sometimes I don't see him for a day or two at a time because of how often he goes to work on something or hang out with his girlfriend. He's really come along well in his areas of interests and his former teachers vouch for his dedication.

John is me if I was a loud, immature teenager during my high school years. We love the same Chicago sports teams and always competed in sports growing up. We even share a room, so our personalities continue to blend together, but he definitely acts like a stereotypical kid who yells things in public and laughs as adults yell back at him.

Elizabeth needs a secretary and a car of her own to handle the amount of friends she has and how often she goes to spend time with them. We don't know how she did it, but it seems like almost all of her friends are pretty wealthy and love to take their girls places like concerts or even on vacations. At least she has sports to keep her (sort of) humble.

Michael is a super nice kid who laughs at dumb jokes just to show that he looks up to you. When he's in a bad mood I have no sympathy for how he gets made fun of, but he comes back around after a short amount of time. He has trouble gaining weight so sports aren't so natural for him, but I've seen him cry over having to eat apple pie so I, again, have no sympathy for him.

Gabriel loves sports more than anything. He's only in sixth grade so he doesn't know more about a team than its 1 or 2 best players and he likes to focus more on the jersey color or the end zone dance than the actual play. My dad calls him "The Great White Hope," so maybe he's the little guy that will break through and be a professional athlete some day. More power to him.

Nicholas is a smart kid who would rather build with Legos or go on Youtube than go outside any time of the day, week, month or year. He's also getting a little too into Grand Theft Auto 5 these days, so I need to work on getting him out of that interest. He'll probably be an engineer or CEO someday, so I need to stay on his good side for the next 20 years.

Finally, Mark, the youngest. Some times I look at Mark during church or just at home and think, "How did we get so lucky to have this little guy as our baby brother?" He's in elementary school now and is really smart but a little too shy. Mark loves to come home and watch TV or play computer games if he's too tired to play with neighbor kids. He is the closest thing to a regular kid that our family has ever seen and I thank God for that all the time because when my family gets a little too serious we just look to Mark for a smile. I just made myself cry.

My dad has been my pastor since I was born, but I really only see him as that on Sundays. Every other day of the week he's just a regular guy running his own business with Ben. He loves the Green Bay Packers more than anything (sort of). He's always down to have a beer with his sons. He gets mad at stupid things, like any adult these days, and he has definitely made me mad countless times (probably always for something stupid I said when I was in middle or high school). I had to learn that my dad was usually always right about everything he tried teaching me. I had to take a step back and realize his point of view. He has worked hard my whole life to make sure his whole family had what we needed to make it through any day. He has taught me so much and given me the world. I want to be successful partly just so I can give back to him as often as possible and make his life as easy as possible forever.

My mom is everyone's go-to for everything. She not only gave birth to 14 kids, but she raised us, cooked for us, got us to school every day, helped us find new clothes, took us to the park or the store when we were bored on a Saturday, and countless other things that you really don't realize until you sit and think about certain eras of your life. My mom is amazing. My family gets comments and compliments from teachers, bosses, and neighbors so often because of how well they see us behaving. Not to brag, but we are pretty well behaved everywhere we go (just not always very much at all at home). It's nice to hear it from them, but I don't know how to act any other way. The lessons my parents instilled in us have been so consistent and powerful for 14 kids in a row. They really are awesome parents, even if things aren't always awesome everyday.

My family has such a wide variety of personalities, interests, and goals. It will be so amazing in 10 or 20 years when we can all see how far we have come and how much bigger our family has grown. Right now, all I can think of is the day of my parents' 30 year wedding anniversary. We were all camping in Sibley State Park in Minnesota and Abby (of course) put together a slide show of our family's fun times together from day one. I know I'll think of that anniversary someday in the future and that will forever be the age that I see my family members in my head. That feeling of being so close to my siblings and parents as we all reminisced and teared up together will hopefully never leave me. I want to feel that at our family reunions down the road just to show how similar we will forever be. Even as we age, have more kids, and move away from each other, that's the thing that I hope never leaves us. I want my family to be my best friends forever. I hope that this overview of my family has somehow changed the way you see your siblings or parents in a more positive way because I just made myself cry again.