What my parents have done to me.

As most people do or did, at one point in my life  I honestly believed that my parents were both off their rockers. I can't say that this belief is completely in the past but as I have grown older I have come to realize that  maybe they aren't. Unfortunately, I didn't come to this realization in a mature "I am older and understand why they are the way they are" way,  my opinion has changed for one reason and one reason only, I am just like them.

My Dad is Mr. Know It ALL. He can not be wrong (or so he thinks). He has this saying that he is constantly telling my siblings and I, "I've forgot more than you know." REALLY Dad, you have forgotten 23 years of knowledge but yet you STILL know it all?  It is even worse when he uses that line against my older siblings who hover around 40 years old.

So, to sum up my Dad, 
 Dad - 40 years of knowledge = still knowing it all.

And then my Mom. She is all about catch phrases. She ALWAYS pairs a proverb or a saying with ANY lecture or point she is trying to prove. A few examples: "Comprende?" "Do as I say, not as I do." and "All that glitters is not gold." (I could go on for pages)  How weird is it that my Mom has a saying for EVERYTHING? I always wondered if she would read a book of proverbs before bed every night because this woman has never run out of material and has raised children who are TWICE my age. No matter what situation I was in, what I was getting lectured on or being given advice about there was a catch phrase included.

So, to sum up my mom,
Mom = proverbs x ∞ (infinity) 

And like any normal child, I swore up and down I would NEVER be like my parents. I would not think I knew all there is to know and I would not makes points using quotes that date back to Little House on the Prairie days.

And then I grew up and became exactly like them.

All it took was one sentence for me to realize,

"You lie in the bed you make, you should have listened to me, I'm always right."

As soon as those words left the tip of my tongue it dawned on me, I am the perfect blend of my parents. All the years of of swearing off their ways were gone. I have always been able to see the similarities between my friends and their parents and I thought I had escaped it.  I thought I was the one who broke the chain of inheritance, the one who was DIFFERENT.

But I guess my Mom is right, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."


#CHEERS2BEINGACHEERS



I love my parents and would be lost with out them...and their ways. 

The beginning...

“I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesteryears are buried deep, leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance.”- Beryl Markham, West with the Night

And this is exactly what I am doing. In less than a month I am leaving everything that I know and love and am moving to Gimpo, South Korea to teach English. As of now I am not sure how I feel. Living and teaching abroad has been something that I have wanted to do for many years but now that it is finally actually here I have become a ball of mixed emotions and those that know me know that I can be emotional. I am excited of course for the journey that I am about to pursue but at the same time I am terrified. Terrified to be alone, terrified to leave my home, terrified of what is to come. But then I am happy, how many people take this risk and uproot and move abroad, start over, immerse themselves in a new life?  But my happiness is accompanied with sadness, specifically sad because I am going to be with out those that I love the most, I will miss family gatherings, "beff-friend" bonding, my nephew learning to drive, my niece starting middle school, my mom taking down the corrupt employees of the  SUHSD, talking basketball with my dad, spending time with my sisters.. the list goes on and on... But I am going to do this, despite my fear and sadness I know that ultimately this is what I want most. 

#Cheers2NewBeginnings.