The Extra
We’ve all heard of the heir and the spare. But allow me to introduce a third, highly elite category: The Extra. This is the true story of a girl who spent her entire life under the impression that she was extra special , only to eventually realise she was just… a Phantom. And for the sake of setting the record straight, let’s just assume that "she" is me. I entered the world as child number three. I wasn't the glorious firstborn, nor was I the heavily anticipated first son. I was the sequel nobody asked for. Despite this, I was a deeply dedicated tag-along. For my first eighteen years, I was glued to my parents like a shadow. For the next four years, I was their loyal weekend visitor. During those initial eighteen years, my summers weren't spent relaxing. They were spent in our ancestral village meeting a small army of relatives and exactly zero TV time. Our primary source of entertainment? Endless, gruelling pilgrimage trips to visit roughly ten t...