A bad case of MCS

Middle Child Syndrome is a real thing. Finally, a legitimate excuse for my weirdness. Whenever my self-esteem is particularly low, or when I feel empty or jealous, I tell myself, don't worry it's just the MCS.

I am the middle daughter of three sisters. My older sister, Emily (23), reminds me almost every day that she's the pretty daughter. My younger sister, Lily (15), could take me in a fight. Lily is the tallest of the three of us. She is 5'2.

Everything goes against me in this family. Emily and Lily have beautiful straight brown hair and my mom's ageless face. I have crazy curly hair and my dad's circular features. I'm 5'0 and have a body that's half Betty Boop, and half hippo. My DDD boobs are an anomaly in a family of A cups, and I've got thick runner's legs, minus the actual running part. My arms are the length of baby carrots and my head has the roundness of a tomato. But my nose rocks.

Here's a (really nice, edited) picture of the three of us. I'm on the left (wearing super tall wedges), Emily is in the middle, and Lily is on the right. Have I mentioned yet that I don't photograph well?

Growing up as the middle sister wasn't terrible, simply because I have nothing to compare it to.

Emily tortured me as older sister's are meant to. I still have scars in the shapes of crescent moons on my arms from when Emily dug her nails into my skin. Emily is cunning and possesses a street smart I can only dream about. One time, she punched me in the face and told my parents it was my fault because I ran into her fist. Genius. When I was in Elementary school, she convinced me that my parents didn't love me. For a while, I believed her...I'm still not sure if she's wrong.

That's the rub of being the introverted middle child between two loud sisters, your parents don't pay as much attention. But on the plus side, I never really got into trouble with my parents, other than the occasional time out. That was usually Emily's fault.

You would think that I could at least exert my power over my younger sister, seeing as though she is 5 years younger than me. But even from an early age, Lily had the common sense to ally with Emily.

This is how I was branded the sister/daughter who is "book smart," but lacks common sense. I may not have the good looks. I may not be the outgoing, social sister. And I may be the middle child. But hey, at least I'm smart.