I would be sort of afraid to actually hear my parents describe me to their friends.
I can tell they are often completely stumped at how I’ve turned out thus far.
My parents and I are very different and see the world from very different perspectives. They are very achievement and success oriented in a very traditional sense. My measures of success vary a great deal from theirs. I tend to lean toward the creative where failure is simply an important and valuable part of the entire process. They don’t understand why I would prefer to stay inside with the HVAC to paint, write or create in some way. My parents think I should be outside sweating and being the rough and tumble boy they thought they raised. I have to hand it to them though. Over the last year, they have backed off quite a bit and do their best to support my decisions. I haven’t let them down with bad grades or getting into trouble. But, we just don’t really speak the same language so there really isn’t all that much to share. So, when I laid out an idea on how to proactively save money on the HVAC operating costs, they were stunned. I had overheard them discussing how high the electric bill was due to the HVAC. I came to them with some facts and figures on how much a smart thermostat and some automatic blinds would save them. You would have thought I told them I was dropping everything to figure out how to get myself into an ivy league business school.