My Childhood Has Shaped My Identity Essay

I grew up hearing the phrase “how and who you spend your childhood with shapes the person you become”. It was a common phrase in the South Asian household. My childhood was one that revolved around my siblings; they were the ones I grew up with and shared memories that I continue to cherish to this day. I grew up hearing stories from my grandma and my mom telling me about our little adventures that we took on every day in a small suburban part of Bangladesh. My childhood is filled with vivid memories of watching my sisters build me toys from scratch, running around in the open field after a heavy monsoon rain to find the ripest mangos and reading me their schoolbooks that had vocabulary words that you will only find in library section that

We argued just like any other siblings over who got the best clothes or for eating each other’s food without asking for permission. My siblings, especially my middle sister will tell me to get the TV remote even when it was only 10 feet away, make the bed every morning because she was feeling too “lazy” or help her with the house chores because learning house chores at an early age was important. Now that I introspect upon these moments, I realize that it has shaped my identity in a way that if it did not happen I would not be as responsible and mature as I am today. However, the memories that I shared with my siblings also created a void in my heart to have a younger sibling- a brother or sister did not matter to me. All I knew was that I did not want to accept that I was the youngest of three sisters and one brother. All my siblings experienced the joy of being the oldest, pampering their younger siblings and being the “boss” of everything. But I did not. Just like them, I wanted to share memories with my younger sibling that will bring an instant smile and be the guide that my sisters and brother was when I was growing