A Few Days of Reflections: Present
When people look back, one of the things they often say is something like "wow, I've really changed since then." And when people look forward, something people will say is "I'm turning into my parents."
I say, yes to both, and it's a good thing, too!
Ways I've changed~
I'm an adult (according to the government) and can vote and have accepted a college and am more confident about driving cars (automatic) and have visited Europe and all those crazy things!
I feel like I've changed SO MUCH this year. In high school, considering I was never one of the "popular kids," I always knew that not everyone cared about me. Not that people hated me (though who knows, there may have been some haters out there), but simply that not everyone truly cared. I wasn't gonna have the whole class trying to be my friend or lab partner or even be in the thoughts of some people. And I was totally fine with that. I think being not popular might make it easier to find the real real real people who would make great friends and that you would still talk to after we weren't seeing each other everyday and would want to hang out with, months after the social structure of whatever particular year of high school ceased to exist. After graduation, I deleted some people off of my Facebook. I kept plenty of people who are not necessarily gonna be my friend forever, but I still deleted over 60, if I remember correctly. I think some were from middle school, too. Since my MS was in a different state... 4 years, and you can tell who's just unnecessary clutter randomly popping up in your news feed. When I told some people about this, they acted a bit shocked. But really, who are we kidding. If that person isn't important to your life, and neither of you particularly care or think about the other one (negatively or positively, though if you care negatively about them, um hello?), get them out of your life! Or at least, your social media. Spend you time and thoughts on people who matter- who matter to you, who you matter to, who seem important to life in general. We can still be perfectly sociable and polite human beings and just not spend any energy on people who don't matter. That's an important one for me. And I think I've started to concrete that into the way I live my life, during this year.
Travel the world, my gosh. Everyone's like "I want to travel the world" and according to Buzzfeed, one of the most common tattoos this year was a world map, but really, where have you been? Are you reaaaallly traveling the world with that worldly tattoo? And if you are, is it all hotels and Instagram pics and going places to be able to tell people after? (I highly recommend reading this article.) Of course, yes, I'm taking lots of pictures and telling stories on my blog (or to whoever asks about my trips) but I didn't go to Europe and now Panama just to travel or check things of a bucket list. Or maybe I did a little bit, but that's not what the trips meant to me. And of course, I highly recommend Couchsurfing because I believe it's one of the best ways to travel. Once again, if you haven't read it, here's my dad's blog about Couchsurfing. So anyways, travel. To me, travel is spending time with family/friends, meeting new friends, learning about new cultures, experiencing a world different to my normal one.. and there's tons of people who feel similarly. I pity those who see the world superficially. I'm not sure how my travels have changed me, but I feel more aware of the world. And I want to experience more of it.
So, back to speaking about adult things... my independence has grown. Not saying I'm totally independent and have abandoned anyone who'd help me with stuff. But, I've learned more about cooking, I have lived without my parents in the country for 4+ months, I've had to deal with bronchitis and going to a clinic (in a different and language, no less!), shopping for all my groceries without parents, sweeping and mopping the house every week, and yeah, I do my laundry, but that's nothing new. Also, I'm just really proud about the whole voting thing. For transportation, earlier this year, I got a lot more comfortable with driving myself places. Since I waited til 17 to exchange my permit for a license, that started last year, but ya know, continuing to get better. However, I have not gotten better at directions. I have some really great me-getting-lost-easily stories, but we're not gonna go there today. I also took dancing lessons (Bachata) and went to social dances (Contra) all by myself. And took a community ed class in jewelry making! And was one of the head officers for the GHS Dance Marathon early this year, and helped raise a lot of money, and send contracts to legit businesses and getting donations from them. Doing all these things this year made me feel like I'm really growing up. And to quote probably everyone in the universe- it's both scary and exciting.
Ways I'm turning into my parents~
I feel like most people's immediate thought after this one is "Oh no" or some other negative thing like that. But honestly, I'm totally happy about it.
Sidenote: Malcolm Gladwell wrote this article called "Do Parents Matter?" that talks about how personalities are partly a result of genes and partly from peer interaction, parts of which were in his book The Tipping Point. Now, I'm not gonna go into the whole parent vs environment vs peers debate, but point out the more certain fact that genes are a very big deal in this. So basically, turning into our biological parents is kinda in our blood.
So anyways, yes. I'm turning into my parents! Yay! My parents are pretty cool, so I definitely lucked out. In terms of personality, I've been very similar to my dad for a long time. We get along very well, all of the time. Honestly, we never fight. The only times I can remember being annoyed at him are when he isn't getting texts/calls and not replying, but that's more of the fault of the phone and company than him (most of the time). We recommend books, music, and movies to each other quite often, and enjoy discussing them just as much. And we're both introverts and have a fairly similar sense of humor (I think), and hey, just pointing it out, but we both have blogs and have played instruments. In fact, I decided on trumpet (after a few other instruments) because he'd played it, and I started my blog because I was inspired by him.
For my mom, it's been more gradual. But it's happening. Though I am not, by any means going to end up as an herbalist or gardener or Waldorf teacher or Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner or massage therapist either, I have definitely grown in respect and interest for these areas that help to make up the pieces that form my mom. And yeah, I try to learn enough to help me live healthily and all that, but I don't think I'll ever find plants more interesting than musicians. Living without her has force me to start doing these things on my own, because I realize that while these aren't necessarily what I'm interested in studying, they are how I want to live my life.
Both of my parents have cultivated the elements of how I want to live my, and maybe it's just the genes at play, but if this is the path that I was already set to take, hey, I'm content to take it.
This song isn't particularly new, but it's a good one.
Have a great News Years Eve, everyone! See ya on the flip side!
I say, yes to both, and it's a good thing, too!
Ways I've changed~
I'm an adult (according to the government) and can vote and have accepted a college and am more confident about driving cars (automatic) and have visited Europe and all those crazy things!
I feel like I've changed SO MUCH this year. In high school, considering I was never one of the "popular kids," I always knew that not everyone cared about me. Not that people hated me (though who knows, there may have been some haters out there), but simply that not everyone truly cared. I wasn't gonna have the whole class trying to be my friend or lab partner or even be in the thoughts of some people. And I was totally fine with that. I think being not popular might make it easier to find the real real real people who would make great friends and that you would still talk to after we weren't seeing each other everyday and would want to hang out with, months after the social structure of whatever particular year of high school ceased to exist. After graduation, I deleted some people off of my Facebook. I kept plenty of people who are not necessarily gonna be my friend forever, but I still deleted over 60, if I remember correctly. I think some were from middle school, too. Since my MS was in a different state... 4 years, and you can tell who's just unnecessary clutter randomly popping up in your news feed. When I told some people about this, they acted a bit shocked. But really, who are we kidding. If that person isn't important to your life, and neither of you particularly care or think about the other one (negatively or positively, though if you care negatively about them, um hello?), get them out of your life! Or at least, your social media. Spend you time and thoughts on people who matter- who matter to you, who you matter to, who seem important to life in general. We can still be perfectly sociable and polite human beings and just not spend any energy on people who don't matter. That's an important one for me. And I think I've started to concrete that into the way I live my life, during this year.
Travel the world, my gosh. Everyone's like "I want to travel the world" and according to Buzzfeed, one of the most common tattoos this year was a world map, but really, where have you been? Are you reaaaallly traveling the world with that worldly tattoo? And if you are, is it all hotels and Instagram pics and going places to be able to tell people after? (I highly recommend reading this article.) Of course, yes, I'm taking lots of pictures and telling stories on my blog (or to whoever asks about my trips) but I didn't go to Europe and now Panama just to travel or check things of a bucket list. Or maybe I did a little bit, but that's not what the trips meant to me. And of course, I highly recommend Couchsurfing because I believe it's one of the best ways to travel. Once again, if you haven't read it, here's my dad's blog about Couchsurfing. So anyways, travel. To me, travel is spending time with family/friends, meeting new friends, learning about new cultures, experiencing a world different to my normal one.. and there's tons of people who feel similarly. I pity those who see the world superficially. I'm not sure how my travels have changed me, but I feel more aware of the world. And I want to experience more of it.
So, back to speaking about adult things... my independence has grown. Not saying I'm totally independent and have abandoned anyone who'd help me with stuff. But, I've learned more about cooking, I have lived without my parents in the country for 4+ months, I've had to deal with bronchitis and going to a clinic (in a different and language, no less!), shopping for all my groceries without parents, sweeping and mopping the house every week, and yeah, I do my laundry, but that's nothing new. Also, I'm just really proud about the whole voting thing. For transportation, earlier this year, I got a lot more comfortable with driving myself places. Since I waited til 17 to exchange my permit for a license, that started last year, but ya know, continuing to get better. However, I have not gotten better at directions. I have some really great me-getting-lost-easily stories, but we're not gonna go there today. I also took dancing lessons (Bachata) and went to social dances (Contra) all by myself. And took a community ed class in jewelry making! And was one of the head officers for the GHS Dance Marathon early this year, and helped raise a lot of money, and send contracts to legit businesses and getting donations from them. Doing all these things this year made me feel like I'm really growing up. And to quote probably everyone in the universe- it's both scary and exciting.
Ways I'm turning into my parents~
I feel like most people's immediate thought after this one is "Oh no" or some other negative thing like that. But honestly, I'm totally happy about it.
Sidenote: Malcolm Gladwell wrote this article called "Do Parents Matter?" that talks about how personalities are partly a result of genes and partly from peer interaction, parts of which were in his book The Tipping Point. Now, I'm not gonna go into the whole parent vs environment vs peers debate, but point out the more certain fact that genes are a very big deal in this. So basically, turning into our biological parents is kinda in our blood.
So anyways, yes. I'm turning into my parents! Yay! My parents are pretty cool, so I definitely lucked out. In terms of personality, I've been very similar to my dad for a long time. We get along very well, all of the time. Honestly, we never fight. The only times I can remember being annoyed at him are when he isn't getting texts/calls and not replying, but that's more of the fault of the phone and company than him (most of the time). We recommend books, music, and movies to each other quite often, and enjoy discussing them just as much. And we're both introverts and have a fairly similar sense of humor (I think), and hey, just pointing it out, but we both have blogs and have played instruments. In fact, I decided on trumpet (after a few other instruments) because he'd played it, and I started my blog because I was inspired by him.
For my mom, it's been more gradual. But it's happening. Though I am not, by any means going to end up as an herbalist or gardener or Waldorf teacher or Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner or massage therapist either, I have definitely grown in respect and interest for these areas that help to make up the pieces that form my mom. And yeah, I try to learn enough to help me live healthily and all that, but I don't think I'll ever find plants more interesting than musicians. Living without her has force me to start doing these things on my own, because I realize that while these aren't necessarily what I'm interested in studying, they are how I want to live my life.
Both of my parents have cultivated the elements of how I want to live my, and maybe it's just the genes at play, but if this is the path that I was already set to take, hey, I'm content to take it.
This song isn't particularly new, but it's a good one.
Have a great News Years Eve, everyone! See ya on the flip side!
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