9/25/2008

Perspective

It's an interesting thing, perspective - something you've always got, but in a constant state of change. My perspective on a lot of things has changed pretty rapidly in the last few years - coming to realizations about my upbringing, my attitudes and my passions.

I remember growing up as a child in a cozy little house with loving parents - I have memories of a home that I loved - a room all my own that I got to spend my whole childhood in, a solid group of friends without a constant change of scenery. I remember my dad telling me, "We have the money to get anything you want, but you should only get the things you need." I remember working on cars and electronics with him, learning how everything in the world around us worked. I remember going to temple where I learned morals and values from my mother and other family friends, and disagreeing with my parents' strong religious views.

But what we see as a child is so different that an adult in hindsight. I spoke with my parents a few years ago about how much I loved the fact that we stayed in a cozy little house for so long without moving around all the time, only to hear, "Honey, we did that because we couldn't afford to move." Realizing that the computer my dad bought when I was just old enough to reach a keyboard was a huge investment for them, but important that my sister and I were aware of the cutting edge. Learning that while I got the passion to learn how things work from my dad, I also got the desire to be as independent as possible. To never pay someone else for a job you could do yourself. Something he did because he was forced into, while oftentimes, I'm not. Understandting that my parents and I are have always been on more similar pages on religion than I ever thought, focusing on being a good person and less on the specific path there. They just picked a religion to get those ideals across and related me pulling away from parts as a pulling away from those ideals, which coudln't be farther from the truth.

We are certainly nothing if not the sum of our experiences. One thing I guess I didn't realize before though is how much those same experinces can remold the person that you are as you see them from a different angle. The real difficulty, I think, comes in how malleable, how willing you are to let those experiences change you into becoming something new.

No comments: