exhausting

She didn’t get to choose her birth order, yet somehow it became her full-time identity. Before she even understood what responsibility meant, it was handed down like a family heirloom. She is the firstborn, the test run, the one who had to “know better,” “do better,” and “hold it together.” While other kids her age were allowed to be children, she was busy being the example, the helper, the emotional buffer, the one who kept the family from tipping over.