Will you become your parents?

I was listening to someone standing in line in front of me at the store tonight drone on and on about how upset she is that she has "truly become" her mother to some poor soul on the other end of her cell phone. Which quickly turned into a emotional tirade against this woman's mother, who apparently is uncaring and judgmental and not to mention an "uncontrollable slut" (yes, this was the most AMAZING phone conversation I have ever had the pleasure of overhearing, haha). Anyway, as I left the store my mind was spinning, I wanted to explore this more...so of course I let my mind wander off and I decided that...

We are not our parents. We're not. You've probably heard all your life that the traits you've found so annoying in your mother or your father will eventually manifest themselves in you own personality. Maybe you even believe it. Personally, I think it's a ridiculous theory. It's a cop-out, something people tell themselves to feel better about not taking responsibility for their lives. Maybe if you go through your life without examining yourself, without dealing with your faults, without consciously deciding what to bring forward and what to leave behind, or if you can't take responsibility for your own inner happiness, then perhaps it is likely that you become the drunk, the abuser, the cold and distant judge your mother or father was...or maybe even an "uncontrollable slut" like your mother.

But I believe you have a choice. Again with the choices...God, I talk a lot about choices!!! But it is true, I believe we all choose our lives, that our existence is the sum of our choices-the little ones, the big ones. We don't always choose what happens to us, and we don't choose where we come from, but we do choose how we react to the events in our lives. We choose to be destroyed or to grow wiser.

Nietzsche said, "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger." I cling too this philosophy; I need to believe it.