Growing up, I was a very stubborn child and my parents always got frustrated with me most times because of this. The feeling was certainly mutual because there were times I actually thought I was adopted and I would daydream about my real family coming to take me away to a beautiful mansion. But now that I'm grown- well almost hehe- and living on my own in college, most of the behaviors I used to "hate" are actually what I've learnt from; and I'm now using to live my best life.
I've learned how to never give up no matter what.
My mother is one of the most determined people I know. When she puts her mind into doing something, nothing ever stops her from achieving it. Now I used to be the direct opposite of this, I was the kind of person who gave up the first moment things started to get wrong and I HATED when my mum would force me to keep on going because I used to think there was no point in continuing. But my mindset changed when I got into college. Every college student has faced those moments in their life when they felt they were failing their classes and almost gave up on trying to pass them. This happened to me in most of the classes where I had frustrating professors; I always want to relieve the urge to give up but whenever that happened I would always think about my mum and how she would always push me to be my best self. I use this to motivate myself and this has been helping me till this day.
I've learned how to be patient and understanding.
If anyone knew me they would know I would rush into anything without giving it a full thought. My dad would always advise me and say I should "use my head" to avoid making bad decisions. He is a very understanding man, he listens and tries to put himself in your shoes in order to relate better with you. Everyone in my church probably loves him because of this. It is also the reason why he is the person I go to when I need to talk to someone. Learning from this has really helped me in my relationship with my friends and new people I meet every day. I always put myself in their shoes, so I would be understanding and non-judgmental.
Most times as young kids, we sometimes see the ways our parents treat us as wicked and disheartening and we might sometimes hate them because of it. I don't know why it took till I got into college for me to understand my parents better, but right now, I appreciate them for never relenting to teach my strong-headed little self these things that are making me a better person right now.