Seriousness That Changed You

People say the same about my parents raising me... I am opposite from both of them, in different ways.

[Perry Winkle]

While we're talking about relative differences --

My brother and I are two sides of a coin. He's the face and I'm the tail.

I look like my father, he looks like my mother. I act like my mother, he acts like my father. He's outgoing, I'm not; he's a creature of outward focus, I'm a creature of inward focus.

We have so much shared life context that we can talk for hours, and you won't understand most of it.

Even though we're 6 years different in age we're as close as twins.

[cklabyrinth]

A few events that really changed me were when my parents were divorced when I was almost 11. One day I came home from school and half of my family's belongings were gone. My mother had a moving company come in that day and take all of her stuff, including the bed and our TV. I remember standing in the kitchen and crying with my father for reasons I didn't fully understand at the time. As the next six months passed and I had to explain what happened to my younger cousins and inquiring minds at school I only began to understand why.

The second most serious change in my life occurred a few years later when my older brother punched me in the nose for the first time. When he joined the Marines a year and a half ago I can't say I was surprised. He used me to learn how to inflict pain upon others so it's the perfect calling for him. I wish him luck.

The third was on September 11th. All of my remaining innocence was lost that morning when in first period physics the teacher in the room next door came in and told us to turn on the radio. For the rest of the day in my three remaining classes all we did was listen to the conflicting newsreports that were mostly conjecture.

The fourth was on a trip to Switzerland a year later when a table of Swiss people my age grilled me on my political stance about the United States' foreign policy, especially regarding Afghanistan, our relations with Israel and many other subjects. They were more educated about the U.S. than I was. I had no answer to almost all of their questions; it was the most embarassing experience of my life and even to this day I wish I've done more to educate myself on our policies. Needless to say, I've learned quite a bit from reading some of the posts on this forum.

Now that that's off my chest, I really like these forums. Probably not the place to say it as Ibram will probably remark, but I don't care. I've enjoyed myself thus far.