With all of the drawbacks to being the only girl, I did have my moments where I was thankful for the Hot-Wheels and Rescue Heroes.

        Each year at the same time, children–boys and girls alike–look forward to their birthdays. Ironically, my older and younger brothers were both born in January, with less than two weeks separating them. I, on the other hand, was a June baby.

        When it came time for birthday parties with friends or family, my brothers had to share a party, whereas, I got my own. I can recall every year when my brothers would bicker over what theme to pick, or what cake they wanted. But as for me, I got to call the shots. Whatever I picked, it was always centered around the color pink.

        For my brother’s parties, there was always ‘shared attention’ between the two of them; yet for me, I knew it was a day to celebrate me. After having my opinion shadowed by a majority for most of the year, it was great on days like this where I would be the ‘start of the show’.

        Every child’s favorite part of their birthday party would be opening presents. The anticipation of seeing the ‘loot’ ignites excitement in all of us. There was nothing more liberating than the surprise that waited beneath the paper and bows. However when there are two boys with similar interests, sometimes the gifts were duplicates. It is a known fact that kids do not have filters, so my brothers had no problem voicing their opinions on having the same gift: “Why did you get us both train sets? We don’t need two.” The mortified giggles of my parents could not mask the awkward in the room, yet, you cannot blame the comment of a naive six year old. We still look back on that to this day with a laugh.

I always smirked when my brothers would open the same gift: I would never have this problem. Every gift I opened was better than the last–and no one was there to ruin the surprise. I feel that because my brothers are so close in age, they lost some of their individualism as kids. They were always referred to as ‘the boys’ whereas I would be called by my name. I did not have to share the limelight like my brothers did.

        The sea of blue would roll in for the brisk winters, and then would be compensated with a pink explosion come summer. Yet I know that the blue sea parted between two people, yet the pink eruption was saved exclusively for me.