BOR Final Draft

Lara Carandang

August 27, 2014

Period 2

The Personality of a Middle Child

I definitely know what being a middle child is like because I am the second oldest sibling out of four. Each of my siblings and I have our own distinguished personalities. You would be able to tell if you’ve seen each of our lives at home. For one thing, my older brother likes to socialize and go hang out with his friends frequently outside of our house. I, on the other hand, like to stay inside of my room and organize, study, or go on my computer, so I won’t have to socialize. My younger sister likes to do gymnastics and skateboard with her friends at their houses, while my younger brother likes to play video games and read books. In the birth order research slide show’s section on middle children, it says that I am completely set apart from the first born, independent, a negotiator, easily embarrassed, and misunderstood. For the most part, I would say that the information, according to the research, depicted my accurately.

As you can kind of tell already, my Kuya, older brother, and I are definitely set apart personality-wise. When I was younger, my family and I would go to all of these family parties when I still lived in New Jersey. My siblings and I would get somewhat semi-casually dressed and head over to the party. Now, it was like any other typical Filipino party where the food was set up buffet style, the aunts and uncles did karaoke or watched the Filipino channel, and the cousins were either outside, socializing, or in their rooms watching TV. At these parties, my older brother would hang out with each of my cousins. My cousins were three to four years older and younger than me. So while he would hang out with them, I would be left behind and not really to talk to anyone at all because I was uncomfortable with the large amount of people. I would just eat a little with my mom during the whole party. This happened each year, but I most vividly remember this happening when I was ten years old. Aside from parties, at home, my Kuya and I are very different. Andrew, my Kuya, likes to go on dates with his girlfriend, Lizvet, workout, and hang out with his friends. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there is me who likes to stay at home all of the time, studying, reading, or going on my laptop. I don’t like to talk to other people and I’m usually busy with school work, so I usually just stay at home. From these experiences I mentioned, you can most definitely tell that I am completely set apart from my brother, in the aspect of personality traits.

According to the research, I am a mediator and also independent. At home, my younger siblings, Angelo and Lauren, tend to quarrel about the smallest things. For example, they enjoy playing LEGO Harry Potter on the wii. If Lauren pressed the wrong button or chose the wrong character, the youngest sibling, Angelo, would throw a tantrum that would lead to Lauren kicking or sitting on him and then Angelo yelling and pulling her hair. When it got to the point where it was too irritating to listen to, I would go in and ask for each one’s side of the story. My usual solution is that they should either play by themselves or I’d try to explain to them that it was only a game. In that perspective, I can say that I’m a negotiator. When it comes to schoolwork and studying, I tend to be independent. I’d rather work on homework and schoolwork by myself so I won’t get distracted and so I can get work done more efficiently. Lots of people get together in study groups, but I’d rather study by myself at home, because then I can study at my own pace. When it comes to resolving others’ conflicts or being independent with my work, I’d say that this research is pretty accurate.

If you know me well, you would know that I am prone to embarrassment and am misunderstood a lot. I like to sing a lot. On a good day, you could probably see me singing to myself while walking around the campus to each class, quietly. If  I catch someone staring at me while I’m singing, I will flush crimson in embarrassment because I don’t like when people point out my voice. I really disliked it when people would tell me, “I can hear you singing,” because I’m very self-conscious and I’ll think that they think my singing’s horrible. Also, because I’m extremely self-conscious and have low self-esteem, I tend to be very quiet around others. I get misunderstood constantly by being called weird or by being assumed that I don’t like them. It’s happened ever since I was little because I’m so reserved. People misunderstand my intentions; I am not quiet because I dislike them. I am quiet because I care too much about what other people think and say about me. This is the most accurate information about me from the slideshow.

The birth order research, in my point of view, was an accurate portrayal of my personality, 
being a middle child. I thought it was interesting how well this research was spot-on with my feelings and traits. Thanks to this information, I have more clarity on how middle children feel and what they think, generally.