Parents

Hello, strangers.

I guess I lied in my last post. School got busy, and my birthday was this past weekend, so I was unable to come here.

Anyway, I've had a topic in mind that I've wanted to talk about for a while: parents.

I'm sure some of you just cringed by the very sight of that word. I apologize.

Growing up, my parents were quite opposite. My mom decided that she would take the best friend approach. She basically let my twin sister and I do whatever our little hearts fancied. Luckily, we were good kids, so we never did anything really scandalous or illegal. I can see how this approach could be dangerous, like I-could've-been-addicted-to-meth-at-a-very-young-age dangerous. Thankfully, that's not my story. My dad, on the other hand, was a little stricter... not as strict as some of my friends' parents, but he definitely had more rules that my mom (It's kind of easy to beat 0, right?!). However, for my sister and me, he provided the boundaries that structured individuals like us needed.

So, as you can imagine, my relationships with my parents were quite interesting. However, looking back as an adult (currently at the same age as my mom was when she gave birth to my sister and me), I've realized that they did the best they could with the tools they had. There's no book on parenting (well, actually, there are tons of books on parenting, but not just one big book that tells you exactly what to do in every single situation and insures that the result will be a happy, healthy child and a stress-free parent). For my parents, my mom tried to do opposite of what her strict parents did (so she went to the other extreme), and my dad tried to do exactly what his parents did since I guess he thought they did a good job raising him and his siblings. While, I don't necessarily agree with everything my parents did (and as a teenager, I was often mad by their decisions), I most certainly appreciate everything that they've done for me. Without them, I wouldn't be the person I am today.

So, when I see "kids" complaining about how horrible their parents are, I really just want to tell them to wait it out. When they grow up, they will most likely understand why their parents didn't want them going to a party without an adult there to supervise. Their parents were doing the best they could to protect them. Parenting is a hard job--you don't want your kids to hate you, but you also don't want them to end up dead or in a bad situation that you allowed to happen...

So, moral of the story: Go hug your parents and tell them how much you appreciate what they've done for you. They were doing the best they knew how. :)

I'm still here :)

Hello, strangers.

I've been a bit absent lately. I've had quite a few blog ideas, but sometimes life gets in the way. Between grad school, work, my friend visiting from out of state, and one of my best friend's wedding, I've had little time for much else. I'll try to write sometime later this week. :) I've missed reading your blogs as well!!!

I do have some exciting news though (at least, it's exciting to me!). My 25th birthday is on Saturday, and I'm going to a murder mystery dinner! I'm hoping it will be a lot of fun. I've always wanted to go to one of these!!! :) So, I'm really excited!!!

Anyway, I have to eat breakfast, make coffee, & pack my lunch AND dinner all in the next 30 minutes, so I better get going... Hope to be back later this week to catch up on your blogs and post something new here. :)

Identity Confirmed.

Hello, strangers.

A few blog posts ago, I wrote (A LOT!) about figuring out my identity (and what that meant to me) based on the archetypes present in my life. Well, this past Wednesday, on the way home from class (coincidentally the one we discuss archetypes in), my dominant archetype made an appearance.

You see, I carpool with a classmate who is about 20 years older than me (in her 40s). We were driving home from class, and she randomly read a sign for a business in one of those sketchy strip mall type establishments. Since we are in Texas, the sign was in Spanish. She knows Spanish and read it outloud in Spanish. Since I don't know a lick of Spanish, I had to ask her what it said. This is our exact conversation:

Me: What does that mean?
Classmate: Pretty Girls.
Me: Oh, so it must be some sort of salon or something, right?
Classmate: Um, no... it's more like a... (pause as she takes into account my goody-2-shoesness.. lol) gentleman's club...
Me: Oh... well, it could be the name of a salon...
Classmate: HAHA! (She literally giggled for a few seconds.) There's your Innocent coming out...

So, this normal, everyday, seemingly not important conversation turned out to be something quite meaningful (to me at least). It confirmed to me something that I had read about myself in a book. I just never really noticed before, but now since I'm aware of my dominant archetype, I'm extremely sensitive to every little piece of it that seeps out of me. So, strangers, this unimportant-turned-important conversation confirmed my identity. I am quite clearly the Innocent. :)