Patterns

Being human, I have always found patterns (meaningful or otherwise) in most everything. Specific to my topic here, I have tried throughout my teenage and adult life to draw parallels between my parents and myself. Height, eye color, hair texture, squareness of head, taste in music - anything is fair game to my dot-connecting.

After saying that, I'd like to add that biological determinism doesn't sit well with me, and neither does the blank slate. I could take them if they reached a compromise but not as they are in their pure forms.

To start, here's a brief autobiography:
In elementary school, I was quiet, reserved, bookwormish, with HUGE, plastic frame, Medicare-provided eyeglasses. No kids made fun of me because I never said anything stupid (never said anything at all really) and I gave them the answers to tests. I branched out a little when sixth grade came around. Music was much more a part of my life and I dressed "alternatively." All said though, I was still quiet, and you could still get all the right answers off of my test, but don't count on copying the homework because I didn't complete that...

So far in my tale, I appear to have turned out a lot like my mother - passive but witty when the circumstances were right. I even took a cue from both of my parents and started drinking when I was twelve. School is something I missed when I could. I was on the right (Pinker's) track!

Fast forward! It's eleventh grade. I got some different friends, and I don't drink, and I don't smoke pot anymore. I start drinking coffee. The summer passes, and senior year comes with a lot of surprises. Over the summer I must have caught a charisma bug because suddenly I'm an extrovert. There is ease when I speak to people I don't know well, and sometimes they even laugh at my jokes! Senior Class President, Editor-in-Chief of the school newspaper, etc., etc., the list goes on.

But classes still weren't a priority to me. I took advanced classes, but I don't think anyone took my being there very seriously. When our class took the ACT, however, I received the highest score. People were pissed, and I can't say I blame them. These peers of mine worked very hard in school and even studied for the big college tests, while I maintained a lackadaisical course through school and all of life.

Eventually, through inspirational teachers and a lot of growing up, I got to college and started to do my homework.

Am I just the result of two people's DNA combining and forming another? Yes, Pinker, that is correct - but wait, there's more! What happened to me when I started hanging out with the "Straight Edge" kids and stopped doing drugs and started getting social? There was a marked change in my behavior. If I had continued to hang out with the same people I strongly doubt (though in no way can prove) that I would have continued on as I was. And if I would have continued that way, I very well could have ended up like my mom: single, four kids, job at a bar, etc., etc. (yet still a great woman).

I also mentioned some of my academic tendencies. My attitude toward homework and going to class seems to have been inherited, or perhaps learned in one way or another very early on in life. It's hard to tell. Scholarly pursuits, though, certainly seem to belie my genetic makeup. Had it not been for the subjectivity and concern of teachers, and new friends, I probably would have followed the beaten path toward an impoverished lower class.

There are so many other examples it would be possible to write about, but I think this one shows enough. I carry many traits from both of my parents (I really do have a square head,) but social interactions have also impacted me immensely. Neither can stand alone.