Sometimes, we have choices as to who we become.
Sometimes, our upbringing is a part of who we become.
Sometimes, is it just in our "DNA" ???
I've been through a lot of life, of choices. Some of those choices were my parents' doing. Some of them were mine because of what I thought I wanted to be as I was growing up. I watched Dallas in the 80s --- fancy clothes, dinner on good china in the formal dining room after cocktail hour -- sometimes TV influences our wants or desires. But when I finally grew up, I finally realized that some of the things I thought I wanted just weren't going to be part of my life.
I spent 10 years in Ohio. I moved there when I was 40, after growing up in California, in the bay area. It started as a growing community and then became Silicon Valley, with all that goes with the tech industry, jobs, and dreams. But I never felt like I fit in. Once I moved to Ohio, at first it was a little bit of culture shock. But at the same time, there was finally a feeling of fitting in. I wasn't the girl who would wear fabulous clothes, great shoes and bling. Jeans, tennis shoes, Tees, this was more my world.
There's a song on the country circuit called "Fancy Like". And the chorus ... "Yeah, we fancy like Applebee's on a date night, Got that Bourbon Street steak with the Oreo shake, Get some whipped cream on the top too, Two straws, one check, girl, I got you"
Every time I hear it, I feel like yeah, that's me ... Applebee's is fancy enough! I guess if we want something bad enough, we work towards it. Fancy or hip clothing was never my thing. My sister was more about that, along with my daughter, but it seemed to skip my genes!
I guess my bottom line here is about acceptance, about learning to be happy with who we are, and not try to be something we're not. The people in our lives who care about us don't judge us based on what we wear, or how fancy our house is; they care about who we are as a person on the inside. So go out there and just be you!
