I get asked a lot what it was like sharing a bedroom with my three sisters. To put it simply, it was wild.

I was lucky enough to be raised by two loving parents that loved me, loved each other, and most importantly, loved Jesus. My parents raised five children; four girls and one boy. Whatever stupid thought may have just popped into your head like “oh that poor boy, surrounded by so many girls,” get it out. He was lucky to be surrounded by so many girls, but we will get to Grady in another post. Anyways, I am number four out of five children; Alex, Katie, Grady, myself, and Ava. Each of us are about two years apart, so we are all pretty close in age.

Growing up, my sisters and I all were able to share a room. That may sound terrible to some of you, but oh my goodness I loved it. Our house is very uniquely built. The room we all shared was about the size of a three car garage, plus a little extra. We had a bathroom attached to our room, which was super convenient. There was plenty of space for all of our beds, dressers, toys, etc. . . plus a little extra room to practice our gymnastics if we were feeling sporty.

There are some cons to sharing one bedroom and bathroom with three other girls.

1. There is hair everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE. I could vacuum my room everyday and there would still be so much hair. I know, gross right?
2. There are not enough outlets for us all to do our hair in the morning at the same time in the bathroom. Meaning someone had to wake up early to get the jump on using the straightener.
3. There is no privacy. On the phone with your boyfriend? Yeah me too. Whisper all you want, but those 5 feet between the beds aren’t hiding anything. I also have slanted ceilings in my room so things are always reverberating off the walls to the other side of the room.
4. You don’t sleep until the last one is in bed because the lights don’t turn off until the last of us is in bed. Leading me to my next point. . .
5. There is always the argument of who has to shut off the light.

At this point you’re probably thinking that this sounds miserable. You are so wrong. Let me at least give you the pros first, geez.

1. FOUR CLOSETS!! Well technically we had one closet that was huge, but I had four sets of clothing to choose from. Talk about a girls dream.
2. Midnight chatter. From first date giddiness to late night heart break and everything in between, the midnight conversations lying in our beds under the safety net of darkness will always be some of my most favorite memories.
3. Workout buddies. For some reason we always got the urge to get in a workout late at night, and if one of us started, all of us ended up doing it. It could be 10 minutes of abs, or trying to spot one another for a back handspring. If one of us was in, we all were.
4. Dissemination of blame. This could be a pro or a con. When our room was messy, it wasn’t just one person getting lit up, we all had to suffer together. This is a pro, until “my area” was clean and one of theirs wasn’t, then it was just annoying.
5. Slumber party. . . every night. From late night snacking, practicing makeup, learning how to braid, or anything in between, living with your three sisters meant that it was essentially a slumber party every night.

I’ll be the first to tell you, my siblings are my best friends. They are loud, witty, sarcastic, goofy, and did I mention, LOUD?! But wow, they are amazing. I know that I have four really great people in my corner when I need them. How lucky am I that I miss my siblings when we are apart?

Living with my three sisters taught me how to be a good roommate long before the college stage. They taught me to do my hair, how to do make up, good first date questions in case there was awkward silence, and how to respect boundaries. We shared clothes, tears, stories, and heartbreak. Whatever we were going through, we had each other to work through it together. Whether one of us needed a hype woman, a pick-me-up, or a hug, there were three willing people there at every corner. That is a blessing.

When I was younger I really took those moments together for granted. While there were definitely times that I wanted to build a wall between my bed and theirs or just plain sucker punch them, I am grateful that I was able to share such a close childhood with them. Those late nights cultivated lifelong friendships between us.

While part of me wants to believe we will be those same little interdependent kids forever, I know now we are all, for the most part, grown up. I am close to finishing college, Katie is married, finishing out Physicians Assistant school, Alex is engaged and running a highly successful business, and Ava is just about to graduate high school. Our roommate days have passed us, but the memories will stay with us always. Four girls in one room was wild. There were fights, dance battles, shared heartbreak, laughs, game nights, and so much more, but those were the nights of our lives. Those are the memories I will carry with me. I hope to one day, down the road, encourage my future kids to cultivate those friendships like my parents encouraged us. I will cling to those memories and cherish them forever in hopes I can see them reflected in the lives of my children and my siblings’ children to come.