Family Discourse
When I was 5 years old I was a procrastinator and my mother was far from lenient. It was a Sunday afternoon, and I had a project due the following Monday morning. Naturally, I asked my mother if we could go to the store to go get a poster board so I could complete my project. It was 3 p.m., and I was looked upon with suspicion. She asked when it was due and when it was assigned. I shamefully admitted that I had a week to complete the project, and I procrastinated until Sunday.
The answer was no. No poster board, no project and certainly no grade.
I was devastated. I had never missed a project, and since I can remember I have always been lectured on how important every school assignment was.
So there I was, a 5-year-old kindergarten student, weeping to my mother about why I needed to get my grade. She didn’t budge.
This taught me one of the most important lessons in life. Never procrastinate - especially when you do not have ultimate control of your work. I had to rely on my mother to get the poster board. I have since rarely missed a deadline for school work which I could control, and I have never missed a deadline for work.
My mother could have given in. She could have done the project for me like other parents who had children in my class. Instead, she took the hard road and watched her child suffer the consequences. I am sure it was a difficult decision for my mother, but it was an important one.
I have since told this story many times to friends, coworkers and new parents. I expect to raise my children the exact same way, because those values of hard work and time management have stuck with me forever.
As I began to grow up, I wanted to learn more about how my parents made an income and what made a business. For this, I turned to my father who drove me to middle school every day. Each morning he would lecture me on business practices and confrontations he had faced with employees as a manager. He would talk about the difficulties of working for private companies, public companies and the government. It seems a little ridiculous looking back that a 13-year-old kid wanted to learn. I’m sure a majority of this advice was welcomed with a nod or “mhhmm,” but it stuck with me as I began to form my own business and eventually my own LLC. He taught me the values of a persona and how you’re viewed which tie directly into your online persona in today’s Facebook world.
Just as in this class, we are taught to view ourselves from the perspective of others and be independent in learning by blogging and reflecting on our course material. In the movie Persepolis, we saw just how family is the main influence in one's life no matter how far you travel or what trouble you might get yourself into. Even in foreign countries, the values of our families thousands of miles way stick with us.
Just as in this class, we are taught to view ourselves from the perspective of others and be independent in learning by blogging and reflecting on our course material. In the movie Persepolis, we saw just how family is the main influence in one's life no matter how far you travel or what trouble you might get yourself into. Even in foreign countries, the values of our families thousands of miles way stick with us.
To most college students, family seems important but not vital. I have spent the majority of my college life traveling for work. I spend a lot of time alone and hopping from one hotel to another. City by city, the importance of family grows - especially when you are in a foreign place. You friends are rarely permanent, but you’re stuck with family forever. They influence you even when you don’t want the advice. They annoy you even at the best of times. And they are the only thing you have when the chips are down.
No matter what background you come from, your family is the number one influence your life’s decisions.
If there is one value my parents taught me that you always need to step back and view yourself from the outside. The way others view you is almost as important as your own work ethic and credentials.
