This I Believe

Ashleigh - Centennial, Colorado
Entered on September 17, 2006
Age Group: Under 18
  • Bellarmine University — Education, unabridged

I Believe that Parents Aren’t Everything

When there is no family to turn to, I believe that the friends you have made will be there for you to turn to. If nothing else, your friends will be the one thing in your life that you can rely on.

I’ve never had, what most would say, a normal relationship with my parents. It’s not that they’re bad people; we’ve just never been able to connect. It’s understandable, my dad grew up with two brothers and went to an all boys school since he was nine years old. He does not, and probably never will, understand girls, he just was not raised that way.

I cannot blame my parents for not listening to the problems I have or answering my sometimes pointless questions about growing up. I believe that this is how they were raised, left to fend for themselves. My mother in the not-so-harsh streets of Westchester, and my dad at a school three countries away from his own family.

From a young age I realized that my parents were not going to be my source of emotional support. I knew they weren’t going to be happy for me every time some silly boy I happened to like at the time smiled at me. It was unimportant to them.

The friends I have made, and am still making, are the people who I turn to when everything seems wrong. Without my friends I am sure that I would be a distant emotional wreck. They just seem to understand the things my parents are never able to.

Numerous times I have tried to let them into my life, to give them a glimpse of who I am, but they’ve never seemed interested. They have their own lives and my two brothers to worry about. I am, what you would say, on the back burner of their minds. From this, I have learned to rely on others for advice, information, and help.

I have no grudges or anger towards my parents. In fact, one day I believe, when I am living on my own and out of my moody teenage years, I will thank them. Not only for making me a stronger person, but also for teaching one of life’s greatest lessons, in this world you have no one but yourself to rely on