Week 16: How my childhood impacted who I am today

My childhood made me who I am today. I grew up with both of my parents, I am an odd man out in today's statistics, because my parents are still married. Not only married but married for over 30 years. I knew what they expected of me, not my mom wasn’t on the PTA, and my dad didn’t coach little league anything. But they were involved with me, they helped me with my homework, let me cry on their shoulders over pets that had died, boyfriend troubles, or just teenage drama. And they trusted me, I knew that I didn’t give them any reason to not trust me and I knew that that trust was a gift and that if I broke it it would be a hard road earning it back. My childhood was full of my mom taking me to school, making my lunch even through high school and being there when I got off the bus to ask me how school was today, even if my answer was OK for days upon days. My mom would go to work for the night and my dad would be there, to cook dinner, help with homework, referee fights between my sister and I and he even washed dishes. My parents are the best examples of what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wanted to have a home of my own, a partner in life that I could just hang out with and that would still give me kisses each and every time I left the house (yes my parents still do that they kiss goodbye all the time). I wanted kids of my own to share my heritage with, to share my family with, kids to pass on the traditions of my family to. My childhood made me want the basics, dream of the future, live in the present and respect the past. I am thankful for the fights my mom and I had growing up, because now she is one of my best friends, I love that my dad is still really pretty quiet he might not say much but he is a great listener and when he does talk you better listen. I am thankful for all the lessons I have learned the most memorable ones were a hard but they stuck. I don’t know if it is correct saying my childhood impacted me, so much as saying my parents impacted me. So Thanks Mom and Dad, I would say you did a pretty damn good job. You have two daughters with families of their own, who love spending time with you and are proud to call you our parents.