My family isn't exactly the biggest, and I am not sure how to feel about it. On one hand, I was always curios of having an extended range of family members to meet and talk to, but on the other hand, too many family members could get annoying. To be fair, even with my smaller number, there are just certain people who get on my nerves.
It was a burningly hot summer day, as we did a family gathering at a grill, and the day already wasn't starting too well as I was sweating like crazy. Me, my parents and my brother were the first to arrive. 'Great', I thought, 'I don't have to deal with anyone yet'. My thought process was quickly interrupted, as my mother's sister and my aunt had arrived just 5 minutes after we got there. Along with my 6 year old little cousin. 'Oh no', was the only voice going through my head at the time. While I don't hate my cousin, having to take care of her and entertain her at the same time were a chore I rather would have not dealt with.
Things would only get worse, as grandma arrived, along with my other aunt, and her not so bright uncle, plus their phone attached to arm kid. At least with this cousin, he'd just stay in his place and watch videos about stupid games. For this group, the uncle was the problem. He would try making conversation with me, but all I heard were the most generic questions a uncle could ask, like 'Do you have a girlfriend yet?' 'When are you gonna lose weight?' 'Why did you stop doing karate?'
'Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!' echoes trough my head but I wasn't going to say it out loud because that would get me in more trouble than I need. However, tolerating that excuse of a conversation wasn't that better either.
Anyway, after what seemed like 3000 years, he left me alone. By the time our discussion ended, I see people I have never met in my life arrive and tell me how much i've grown and things. I couldn't help but panic internally 'Where did you all come from?!' What's with all the kids? Why am I the oldest? Do I have to babysit all of them?'
And oh how I got my questions answered. I WAS the oldest, and I HAD to be their babysitter. All my head could do is wallow in self pity 'Great, might as well jump in that lake....'
After a tiring 5 hours where I had to come up with various games, listen to the kids' flawed rules, be both their punching and hugging bag, all while putting a fake smile on my face. I felt terrible, it was one of the worst days of my life. But for them, it was just saturday.
As the night starts to set in, families start leaving one by one, leaving only me and my family at the grill. I can thankfully say that what happened after wasn't terrible, I sat a drink with mom, dad and my brother, and discussed about all the things that annoyed us that day, and I learned that I was not the only one who had some problems with certain members of the family.