Being the middle child of five siblings sounds like the foundation of a bad sit-com. In said bad sit-com, the middle child is the one who gets the short end of the stick and ends up being a rebellious punk who sneaks out of the house to get up to shenanigans.

Although she is the middle child of five siblings, the only thing that Sophia Krinos (’19) has snuck out of is her study hall to do an interview with intimidating journalism students. Despite this, she wearily rattled off the birth order of her four siblings.

“Ariana’s the oldest,” Sophia begins counting on her fingers, “and then two years later, there’s Larissa and then two years later there’s me. Two years later, there’s Angelina and then there’s Nico, who’s in fourth grade.”

Though she claims it’s sometimes difficult for her parents to divide their attention among the siblings, Sophia enjoys that there’s always someone closer to her age to help her with homework or give her advice.

Her older sister Larissa (’17) is an avid member of the Robinson Band and started Science Club at the school this year. The eldest Krinos sibling, Ariana, graduated from Robinson last year as the IB Valedictorian and currently attends Virginia Tech, where she is studying engineering. According to Sophia, reaching Ariana’s level of success is an ambition that she is reminded of often while attending Ariana’s alma mater.

“You have to live up to the image and be as smart as she is,” Sophia explains. “I’m not the same as her. People expect me to be, but I’m not.”

Thankfully, she is able to get respite from expectations and school stresses when she and her family go on their annual trip to Greece. Her father’s side of the family is Greek and her father was born in Europe. Growing from this point, a summer visit to Greece has become a Krinos family tradition.

This upcoming summer, Sophia looks forward to reconnecting with collegiate Ariana. Like most older siblings, she had quirks that used to annoy Sophia, but now with her gone, these are the things she misses most.

“Before she went to college, I didn’t think I was going to miss her that much. She would do things… [for example,] she would eat all the watermelon, but I kind of miss that. There’s too much watermelon now.”

There may be an abundance of watermelon in the Krinos’s fridge but Sophia’s life is full of something else: love. And maybe a little bit of middle child shenanigans.