Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: What Were You Like as a Child?

 

The Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge is hosted by Long and Short Reviews. They offer this blog hop as a weekly prompt to help you gain new friends and visitors. You don't have to participate every week, but if you decide to post and join the blog hop for a week, Long and Short Reviews requests that you share your link in their weekly post on their website (which will be the top post on the home page each Wednesday morning). The link list remains open for new links for 48 hours. Visit the other bloggers participating to see what they discuss that week. Comments are appreciated. 

Happy Wednesday! Well, after a day that involved a dusting of snow followed by sunshine and warmth, then rain, big snowflakes, and finally cold wind, today should be sunny and warmer. 

April 7, 2026

It looks like today's Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge allows me to talk about my favorite subject: me! Okay, that was a joke. As an empath, though, I do feel a lot of stuff and talk about a lot of stuff. 

This will shock anyone who has only known me as an adult: I was a shy, anxious, and quiet kid. I'm still anxious and shy, especially in new settings or with people I don't know well, but quiet left a long time ago, and it is not likely to ever return. 

Born the last of three girls, my middle sister is four years older, and our oldest sister is seven years older than I am. I'm the only sister to have lived her entire life in Massachusetts, and I am the only Gen Xer. Both my sisters are Baby Boomers. 

With the difference in our ages, I got to spend a lot of time alone and had to learn to entertain myself. The good thing is that I developed a great imagination and a love of reading. 

Mom and I

We had a huge family because my mother was one of eight or more, and my father was one of five. We had family that lived in Massachusetts, and relatives that lived in Quebec and Montreal, Canada. My mother and father were the youngest of their siblings, so all our aunts and uncles were much older than they were. Our cousins were teenagers or married when I was still in single digits. Not sure why, maybe because we lived in the same house as our Meme and Pepe, but we hosted the holidays at our house. 

Oldest sister, one of our maternal uncles, middle sister, and I

All three of us danced. My oldest sister liked tap, the middle one acrobats and jazz, and I liked ballet. None of us liked the same things, and we weren't really alike in temperament. We were known as the oldest, the prettiest (middle sister), and the smart one (me). 

Middle sister and I (the only year I took tap)

Because I was so small and bashful, I didn't make friends easily. I kept to myself, and teachers allowed me to help out because I could read at a third-grade level when I entered first grade. Being a teacher's pet did not ingratiate me with my classmates. I was teased pretty much from the day I entered school to the day I graduated high school. Time and life have leveled the playing field, but I will always feel like the kid who didn't fit in anywhere.

I lost my mother when I was 14, and my dad would eventually remarry. This would bring two brothers into my life. I looked after the oldest of the two boys since I still lived at home. The youngest was born after I moved out. 

Many days, I still feel more like that doe-eyed little one in my mother's arms than a career woman who has built a successful business from the ground up. I am, however, grateful that I have been blessed to do what I do, and I feel those difficult, lonely days of my childhood prepared me to approach my real estate business with kindness and empathy for others. 

We are driving to Maine today, but I will definitely visit your blogs to learn more about you.