1. One of you gets to know your parents as young people.
dadsaretheoriginalhipster.tumblr.com
And you'll see how they're completely different parents with your sibling.
2. You may be members of different generations. (Or at least really feel like it.)
Craig Barritt / Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week
3. When other people talk about getting into physical fights with their siblings, you have no idea what that's like.
4. In the early years, your relationship feels more like a parent-child one.
HBO Pictures / Via giphy.com
Rather convenient of your parents, don't you think, to time births so they had a built-in babysitter?
5. If you're the younger one, you have someone whose advice you can actually trust.
6. You both have a period of experiencing only-child syndrome.
wifflegif.com
If you're older, you were on your own until the next bundle of joy arrived years down the road. If you're younger, you were suddenly on your own when your big sib moved out/left for college.
7. If you're younger, you'll end up discovering music that made you feel way cooler than your friends.
View this photo on Instagram
instagram.com
And if you're older, you felt obligated to make sure your bro/sis did not grow up solely on some Disney Channel tween pop bullshit.
8. If you're older, people will often assume your little sibling is in fact your child.
miiniminimu.tumblr.com
Wrong!
9. But later, you may also go through a period of time when people ask, "Who's older?"
Craig Barritt / Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week
10. If you're older, you depend on your younger sister/brother as a resource for understanding newer things.
Via imgur.com
See: #yolo, Spotify, "the cloud."
11. A magical thing starts happening when the younger sibling grows up: You guys start becoming amazing friends.
12. Although it might become slightly weird when you're both in an age bracket where you could potentially be dating someone the same age as your sibling.
fullhouseforever87.tumblr.com
But do what makes you happy!
13. If you're the little sib, you rarely got hand-me-downs, but when you did, they were either awesome or totally weird because they qualified as vintage.
14. If you're older, you get annoyed when they blatantly copy you. But you ultimately find it flattering.
wifflegif.com
And, like, at least you don't go to the same school.
15. If you're younger, you grow up just wishing you were older, and finding you'd rather hang with more mature people.
16. If you're younger, you sometimes unfairly compare yourself to your older sib, and feel like you've accomplished nothing. (But then you remember they've had many more years to do stuff in.)
Via wifflegif.com
17. If you're older, you get to see your younger bro/sis go through life milestones. And because you have perspective, you really get to appreciate their accomplishments.
18. Above all, you both know an age gap doesn't mean you're not close.
