A Kind of Mix

We’ve all seen all those tv shows with the melodramatic family members and their problems that seem a little too ridiculous to be real. Well sometimes I think my family could very well be in one of those shows. Between my mother, father, sister and me, there’s plenty of drama and irrational problems to go around. Firstly there the rational one, my mother. Think the character who’s always kind of banging her head on the table because of what the people around her are up to. Then there’s my father - classic Asian parent with the whole “always get A’s” and “I’m the head of the household” mentality. This, of course, doesn’t usually play well with the rebellious one in the house, my sister, Tiffany. If the family wants spaghetti for dinner you can be sure she’s going to demand Subway instead. And then there’s me - kind of a mix of all of these people.

This fact is particularly obvious in simple everyday issues. See, Tiffany complains that I act like mom sometimes. I try to be the voice of reason when my sister presents me with her “I absolutely NEED a boyfriend” complaints (she just started her freshman year of high school so I guess the boys got cuter). When I try to convince her that she’s a strong independant woman and doesn’t need a man and all those things that basically all Disney princess movies except Frozen go against, I feel like I’m emulating my mother. She would often tell me the same thing growing up, about learning to be independent as an individual. Those teachings have somewhat embedded themselves into my ideology now, making my mother very much a part of who I am.

My father’s ideology, on the other hand, has been translated to me in another way. For as long as I can remember he has always drilled into me that anything I want, I have to work hard for. That means diving head first into whatever I’ve set my sights on and not stopping until I have it within my grasp. As gruelling as it is sometimes, admittedly this frame of mind has helped me to achieve many of my personal goals that I don’t think I would otherwise have achieved. One of such cases was in third and fourth grade when I had to take these timed multiplication math tests every week. It wasn’t long before my father caught wind of the fact that I was struggling and intervened. We made a giant poster board covered in the entire times table with brightly colored post-its sticking everywhere, and for weeks that I practiced with it. By the end of the year I had made a class record for the fastest person to have done 60 questions (my one and only math related accomplishment).

And then there’s my beloved sister. Anyone who knows us both can pretty much vouch for the fact that we’re essentially opposites. She’s pretty outgoing and plays volleyball. I, on the other hand, prefer to stick to a close pod of people and have zero eye-hand coordination whatsoever.  All this means that there isn’t a whole lot of stuff I can do with her anymore, since playing with stuffed animals and barbies isn’t really on either of our agendas anymore. However, on the rare occasions that we decide we would like to congregate peacefully I realize that I can see parts of myself in her as well. She often voices frustration and anger about subjects that matter to her in a manner similar to my wild internal rants to myself. Though I’m more reserved about how I express my opinions, it’s hard to deny that we do have similar opinions on issues such as crazed internet commentators, dad’s cooking, and of course, the struggles of mathematics.

There’s a saying, that goes something like “we’re all a product of our environment”. I am no exception to that. I’m the middle man, the bit of everything, the kind of mix of everyone in my family and that makes my role in the family all the more unique.
**********
I apologize for the strange spacing. Still trying to fix that!