Sibling Rivalry

Sibling rivalry is a funny thing, you don’t know why you feel the need to compete with your siblings you just do.  People looking at it from the outside would probably try and rationalize why I feel the need to compete with my brothers saying things like, “Oh the only reason you do it is because you want more attention from your parents” or “It’s because you are the middle child and you just want to stand out.”  While these simple psychological explanations probably explain why other siblings feel the need to compete with each other, my brothers and I were lucky enough to have parents who are able to devote attention to us all equally.  No the simple truth is that we all just love rubbing it in each other’s faces when we are better than the others at something no matter how stupid or trivial it might be.  Unfortunately it has been a losing battle for me in the past couple of years.  Either god or genetics seemed fit to curse me with being the shortest of the three of us, adding insult to injury making my little brother a good two inches taller than me.  However even in the things I can control I am starting to lose ground.  Before I was considered the smart one always getting the better grades than the other two, but now they are doing well while I hit the hardest classes of my college career.  The need to compete has been one of the main driving forces of my college life.  While it is true I want to do well so I can later get a good job in life, there’s that little spark of competitive spirit inside me that wants me to do better than my brothers just so when I go home on break I can rub it in their faces.