When I Grow Up...

I've never really thought of my parents being significant regarding the shape of my life 'til my late teens. It's a strange revelation, I tell you. We sometimes take for granted their presence but little do we know that it is their very presence that shapes our lives forever. Take the negligent mother for instance. Her daughter grows up or matures not knowing how a lady should conduct herself in public. She has little regard for the feelings or opinions of others and has very few (if any) scruples. The son matures not knowing the value of women. He grows up having jumped from one relationship to the next looking to be nurtured and taken care of. Instead, he gets hurt and slowly finds little, if any, use for the female species. Then we have absent fathers. Young girls, much like myself, seek attention in the wrong places and end up with emotional scars that never heal. We jump in and out of relationships looking for love and that much needed hug a father ought to provide but all we get is a moment in his sheets and an escort in our walk of shame to the gate... Young men grow up not having a real man to model after. They lose all sense of identity and look that and approval through crime and mischievous acts... I don't know about you, but after figuring this out I've come to appreciate my parents a whole lot more. I'm grateful that they're here and that they've kept me from a lot... Had it not been of them, I don't know where I'd be.