I'm going to write a story instead of just writing about what I did today -

When you’re a little girl, you dream of growing up and being a mom. You play house with your friends, pretending that your dolls are babies. You think you can take care of them, I mean, all they need is a clean diaper and bottle and you’re ready to go. Yeah, whatever. When I was ten years old, my youngest brother was born. I learned then the meaning of responsibility and how hard it was to take care of a newborn. I remember quite clearly the day Daniel came home from the hospital. We were so excited to have a new baby in the house. Right away I wanted to hold him. My mom hesitantly looked at my dad before shaking their heads yes. I had never held a baby by myself before. As they put him in my arms, I could feel how delicate he was. I had to hold his head up for him because he wasn’t strong enough yet. I was so careful with him. Right then it hit me. I was this kid’s big sister. He was going to look up to me, I had to make sure that I was going to do everything right. I tried so hard to help my mom. If Daniel needed a diaper change, I would offer to do it for her. Eventually she let me help out with him. I learned how to change a diaper, feed him, burp him, put him to sleep and everything else you needed to know how to do. I became so much more responsible because I knew that if I didn’t hold him right, he could get hurt. But it seemed no matter how hard I tried, I always managed to mess it up. When I burped him, I would forget to use a burp cloth. Or forget to strap him into the changing table and he would almost fall off. I would get so frustrated with myself because I wondered why I couldn’t do it all. Wasn’t this supposed to be easy? When I played with my dolls, they didn’t roll around or spit up all over the floor. Then I realized that I this wasn’t my imagination, but real life and I was going to have to take whatever was served to me. One day, my mom had an emergency with my other brother Joe. She needed to take him to the doctor’s office but didn’t want to take the newborn with her. My dad wasn’t going to be done with work for another three hours and my grandma was out of town. She made the decision to let me baby-sit him. I would be alone by myself with him for at least two hours. It was a huge test of my responsibility. But I thought that I could handle it and agreed to watch him. I didn’t take my eyes off Daniel the whole time my mom was gone. I made sure I made his bottle right (not to hot), burped him (so he wouldn’t throw up on me), and laid him carefully on his stomach for a nap. Even when he was sleeping I kept my eyes on him the whole time, just to make sure he was okay. I realized then that I was becoming a young adult. I had a huge responsibility on my hands but could handle it at the same time. I was so proud of myself for what I had done. I stayed calm and tried to relax when I was watching him. After my mom came home, I was so confident with my abilities to watch my brother that I thought I could be a mom at that point. My parents were so impressed with me that they started letting my stay home by myself with my siblings because they knew that I could handle it. My brother really helped bring me out of my childhood and helped me prepare for my adult life. I learned then that life wasn’t always going to be easy, but a lot of hard tasks along the way. I still dream of being a mom, but I know that I’ll just have to take it a day at a time and figure out as I go.