Tradition, the handing down of a belief or customs from a person to person, is all around us. It makes our families or our close friends the people they are. I believe that family tradition is now a future for me.
As a child, I always thought that I would grow up like my father. I wanted to look like him, I wanted to act like him, and I wanted to be him. When my teenage years began, I thought of only myself and believed that he was out to get me, making me do daily chores and always making my curfew earlier than the rest of my friends. Today, I finally realized why he has been so overprotective towards me.
Just recently I asked my parents if I was allowed out on a Friday night. They asked where I was going and I truthfully told them, “to a party.” Of course they said no, so instead, I called a few of my friends and they came to my house to hangout. The next morning I woke up and spoke to a few of my friends, they informed me of the party and how the cops came and broke it up. Although it sounded like a good time a few days before, I was thankful that I was not allowed to go.
Construction and architecture is what my father knows best. He grew up with it as a child, he learned it in college and now he does it everyday at his job. Continuing this family tradition of construction was something I thought I did not want to be apart of, because of all the stress and nights without seeing his children. Now I realize why he does what he does. The feeling of self-accomplishment after every job, and growing and becoming more wise as he gets older and goes through more situations where hard decisions need to be made. Continuing this family legacy might not be my destiny, but thinking more about it made me respect and idolize my father more and more.
Everyday, I see my father. I see him dressed in his suit and tie, looking like a man of ambition and respect before he goes to work. Everyday, when I see him in the morning, I realize how much I want to be just like him.
What is tradition? Is it continuing my father’s legacy of architecture or construction? No, I believe it is the passing on of qualities my father instilled in me, to my children and becoming more like him everyday. This I believe.