The Stoop: Journey 2 Self-aquaintance

Journey 2 Self -Acquaintance

~My View~

I like to refer to this as Self 101. Self 101 is where we learn who we are and we get to know ourselves as far as what we like, what we don't like, what works for us, what doesn't, what kind of people we want to associate with.. basically the basics of who we are. Self 101 allows us to experiment with life. Think about it, this stage for many of us comes a few times throughout our life, for example, when we are young teens we go through puberty and in doing so we go through the attitudes, the pimples, the boys/girls, heartbreak, heartbreaking, etc. We start to see and fit into our own roles in life. This phase of Self 101 usually concludes at high school graduation.

When we go off to college we do the same thing but we are more knowledgeable about life than we were when we were 13 years old... so we would hope. College sets the stage for us to either magnify who we have become over the years or we have the golden option of abandoning that person to become a totally different person, this is especially true if the University doesn't welcome your personality or the person you were "back at home" so to speak. You start to see things in a new light as a result of the exposure secondary school offers. You find yourself once again experimenting until you find a comfortable "happy medium" for yourself. You are no longer bound by the rules set by Mom and Dad, you are your own person with your own rules; no one can make you or break you except you.. Bye bye Mom and Dad! Good riddens to your rules...! Here I am, here I stand, and here I go... let the battle of LIFE begin!!!!

The latter phase of Self 101 came with it's ups and downs, for one, you were independent. You marched to your own drum beat. You came in as late or early as you wanted to, you ate what you wanted to, you did who you wanted to, even went to class when you wanted to. On the flip side you were obliged to do well in school. For many.. you could burn the campus down but as long as your grades were good so was your relationship with the folks at home, which also meant you were able to continue rolling on wheels (a generous courtesy of Mom and Dad) and you had cushion if you ever got yourself into trouble.. The flip side is.. if you did not perform the way your parents expected you to.. you could be standing alone but not in a positive way. When the parents were not happy they could pull you out of school (which they were probably paying for), stop funding your bank account, turn your cell off, and oh my, take the whip (car).

So you've had a taste of what freedom/independence feels like. Now since you graduated from school the training wheels are about to come off. You either go back home with the family until you get yourself together or you move out and do your own thing.. this is what I like to think of as the final stage of Self 101. Here you are ALL ALONE.. you didn't have the same "cushion" you had when you were in college (at least most of us didn't). This is when you find out how much you and the rents' mutually value certain things in life, you see how much of Self 101 you retained and finally you get to experiment by taking what you learned in the latter phases and using it to improve the person you have become, whatever that may mean to you. It's funny because at this point in your life (now that college is over and the care free life is gone) you no longer have excuses such as I was young or that was then.. now it's you and the meantime. All your actions now become trials and error for you to continue to grow as a person because there is a reaction for ever action you take...

Now you have it, that's what I recall as my journey to get to the person I am today. I find that I still uphold a lot of the things my parents taught me when I was younger, even though some of those things I abandoned when I was back in phase 2.. I guess it's true what they say.. "train a child in the way that they should go and he or she will not depart." Everyday is a new day where I learn something new rather that something is something about me or simply life in generally, I strive to be an ongoing learner of life...

I hope this recollection of the past either brings a smile to your face or just takes you "back," in either case.. here's my 2 cents, can I have 3? LOL

Written by: Always Inspired