Completely inappropriately, and rather ignorantly most likely, I'm just gonna go ahead and say this anyway. The eight-year-old in me is rather upset that South Sudan is now being recognized as a new nation.

My uncle is from Sudan. I knew nothing about the country in 1995 except three things: 1) my uncle was from there, 2) it's right under Egypt, and 3) it was the largest African country. That last tidbit became my go-to factoid whenever someone asked me about the country, and since I was rather into geography back in the day and for some reason obsessed with size (i.e. I was upset when I realized that Canada was bigger than the US and that some so-called experts also considered China bigger that the US (it isn't). Also, it annoyed me extremely that Alaska was considered bigger than Texas... until I got another map that gave Alaska more room than the small top left corner spot it usually was in), I guess it became a source of pride. Like, my uncle was from the largest country in Africa, and that was pretty cool and all.

Now it's not the largest African country. Which is OK, you know, because... having more land than Algeria isn't actually more important than the reasons why the South declared independence.

I would say that I'd have to figure out my new go-to factoid for the country in case my uncle comes up in conversation and people don't know anything about the country. But... I guess I'm not talking to eight-year-olds anymore, so I think I'll be OK.

(And... now you will never have to hear my opinion on relevant and important news developments ever again.)