Suppose you were not related to your family, and they are all around the same age as you. Do you think you would get along as friends?

https://thecoffeemonsterzco.com/blogs/midnight-blogging/journaling-prompts

This is hard to imagine. When I think back to growing up in Colorado, I’m reminded of the fact that my two older siblings and myself all went through middle and high school independently of each other. I shared part of that time with my younger brother, and as adults we’re very similar, but we’re definitely different from our two older siblings. So if we were all the same age? I think we would be okay, overall, but I don’t know that I would be close enough friends with my older brother because he would still be off doing his own thing.

I can’t say anything specific about how I might relate to my nieces and nephews if they were the same age as me, because personally they haven’t developed enough emotionally/mentally to have a strong connection with me on my level. That being said, if for some reason we flipped the script on the prompt by saying I was suddenly the same age as them? Yes, I could see myself getting along with them as friends.

Now, time to consider my dad, who is almost twice my age. Given the different eras we grew up in, with different values and priorities, I don’t know that I would get along with him if he were my age. Honestly, he seems like a very different person from the man I knew growing up in Colorado to who he is today (and has been for the better part of the last decade.)

Truly, this prompt is a difficult thought experiment to run in my mind. It’s hard to judge the potential character of people who haven’t grown up yet, or who have aged out of the norms of society, and determine if you could be friends with them.