Personal Narrative Relating to Family

Personal Narrative Relating to Family
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Personal Narrative Relating to Family
My family is one of the most influential forces in my life. Growing up in a predominantly nuclear family, my parents and I had a profoundly close relationship. This relationship has admittedly shaped almost all of the most critical choices in my life. On the one hand, my parents provided narratives that have directly or subconsciously informed how I cope with life's choices and challenges. Simultaneously, my family also imposed certain beliefs upon my life that may have acted as barriers to how I interacted in a rapidly evolving world.
Arguably, I became aware of my family's influence over my life when I left my home country to study abroad in Canada. This radical geographical and cultural shift is one of my life's most transformative experiences. Growing up, I was not given a say much about what activity I was interested in or my opinions about specific topics. Notably, my parents were and still are quite traditional and would fill up my schedule with after-school classes and demanded nothing less than A grades at school. For most of my life, I aligned with my parents' view that an elite university education was the only way to succeed. However, with the exposure I gained later in life, I learned that there are alternative paths to success. My interaction with course material further helped me understand that the strict Confucian culture and traditions that defined my parents' upbringing shaped their ideas about life and work.
Indeed, the existing evidence suggests that parent-child relationships exist within a complex environment. For instance, research indicates that demographic, economic, and technological shifts all influence how parent-child relationships manifest (Fingerman et al., 2020). I would argue that the nature of their work influenced my parents' relationship with their children. This argument is in line with research that shows that occupational prestige and income shape stability and satisfaction within the family (Karney & Bradbury, 2020). Specifically, the constant pressure and scrutiny that my parents directed towards aspects of my life resulted from the insecurities and impaired esteem stemming from soci0-economic insecurities.
Going forward, my relationship with my family also significantly shaped my social-cognitive capabilities. Growing up, I did not get much independence of thought. My parents, particularly my mom, believed that she best understood my needs and often demanded that I constantly make sacrifices which she argued would pay back in the future (Adelantado-Renau et al., 2019). Admittedly, this logic holds some truth as withholding s...