We are always rebelling against where we have come from, there is always ourselves against them, the new superceding the old, the improved version of truth, and we are the ones who have it.

For longer than makes sense, I had a hard time admitting that my father could ever be wrong. Him being wrong somehow made me wrong, me being wrong is something I hate to concede. About halfway through puberty, or later even, when I was 17 or 18, that's when I realized he wasn't a god.

Oh, I never quite thought he was perfect. I'd rage against his absolutism, his firm authority, his always being right... but it didn't occur to me that this could actually be wrong. It didn't occur to me to challenge it, to deny his validity in external forums.

And then the expectations...people just expect things from me. 'She has her father's propensity for language'... 'If she's her father's daughter, we're lucky to have hired her'... 'You remind me of your father, same concise, well-organized thoughts'. And these are both good and bad, there is always the glow followed by crushing realization of pressure.

We all say we will not be like our parents. We will not have the intolerance, we will not be biased, we will not be stodgy, authoritative, dictatorial adults. We will listen objectively and not judge, we will learn from everything. But yet, I am still like my father. Instead of being bigoted against his pariahs, I have my own standards, and there are things I am irrationally indisposed towards too. Different things, same reaction.

I have a hard time being wrong, just like my father. I have a low tolerance for stupidity, and become overbearingly pretentious when people challenge one of my weak areas. Haughty disdain can cover insecurity, and in this I am like my father too. I am quick with dismissal, like him. I can be fairly rational, and clear, logical. I have a fondness for words. I believe in efficient motion.

In the end, it's not what you do, it's how you do it. And it's not what you believe, it's who or what you believe it about. We are like our parents because of genetics and acclimation and exposure. Because of nature and nurture. The way we differ is when we define our tolerances, when we choose our social circles, when we set our goals.

We are still like them, only in different settings, writing different stories.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.