I remember when I could live my life barely thinking of the consequences of my actions, but that all stopped when I became a role model. It never occurred to me that my younger cousins look up to me. Last summer my dad explained that their annoying behavior was their way of being like me. Then I noticed that they started doing the same things as me. One time when I was finished eating I balled up my paper plate and tossed it in the trash from across the room, as if I was in a basketball game. As soon as I turned to leave the kitchen, my youngest cousin attempted to do the same thing. However, he was not as successful. His plate totally missed the trash can and landed on the kitchen counter knocking over a glass of juice. My aunt started yelling at him because of the mess. I felt like it was my fault so I helped clean up.
I also noticed my younger cousins started dressing like me. When we went to the mall shopping, I picked out a pair of sneakers. They wanted to get the exact same pair. I was annoyed because I didn’t want them walking around and doing everything I do. Every time I visit them it’s like I have clones whose only purpose is to annoy.
One weekend my youngest cousin asked me if I had any videogames that I could give him. As soon as he said that I remembered that when I was their age I pestered my older cousins for the same thing. When I look back I see that I wasn’t trying to be annoying I was just trying to mimic, just like my younger cousins act towards me. Now when I visit I can’t let my little cousins eat snacks at one thirty AM, because they won’t wake up until one in the afternoon.
Before they wanted to mimic me they were a mess. There are three of them and they fight over every little thing, so things can get really loud. The older two have problems in school as well. They had a few fights in school last year and their grades were dropping. Now that they started following in my footsteps their grades have gotten better and I haven’t heard anything about any fights in school. At first I didn’t like being a role model because I didn’t want the responsibility. I didn’t like the idea of always having to watch what I do or say. But now that I see it is helping my family I can get used to it.