We are all known to go through stages of life: infancy, childhood, teenage years, and finally adulthood. Although every stage is different, we inevitably grow in each one. I, like everyone else, went through all of these stages, but some stages were most certainly shorter than others. Childhood was one of those stages. Don’t get me wrong -- the house a great deal of memories from my childhood, but the way I was raised certainly had an impact on the duration of my time spent enjoying “childhood” like things.
The majority of my childhood was spent living as an only child with my two (much older) parents. My two half-sisters were both over 10 years old than I was, so our time together was naturally very limited (seeing as how they were in college while I was just starting grade school). And even though I did have friends in school, because of my familial arrangement, a great deal of my time was spent around adults.
It was inevitable that I was pushed into maturing at a much quicker pace than the majority of my peers. Most of my free time was spent going to the library, studying school subjects I struggled in, and practicing my Russian language studies with my parents. Although it certainly got boring, at times, it was normal and what I was used to.
For the longest time, I dreaded my parents for raising me in this way. I felt robbed of my worry-free childhood, and forced into a strict style of life that prohibited me from any form of personal expression. Because my parents placed such great emphasis on my education, I didn’t feel as well-rounded as I would have liked.
After some personal growth and reflection, however, this all began to change. I began to see the value in my education, and I began to do well in school -- not for them, but for myself. And in my late years of my high school career, I gradually came to the realization that although my education was to be taken very seriously, I had room for social development. Moreover, I came to realize that my parents never intended to restrict me from such development.
There was no longer any reason for me to resent my parents; it was up to me to go forth and learn more about myself as a social and passionate individual, and realize that it was never their intention to restrict me from doing so.
Fast forward to present day, and I have finally finished my high school career. I have grown through friendships and social experiences while staying true to my foundations. I may have had strict guidance, but I learned valuable lessons of hard-work and self-motivation nonetheless. Of course, there were lessons that I learned and will learn from other sources, but I was never meant to learn these lessons from my parents to begin with. At the end of the day, I will forever be grateful for the push my parents gave me to mature, and for the values they did instill in me.
