RealTalkAJ

What traditions have you not kept that your parents had?

Owning a pet could probably be a strong candidate.

If had change in opinions when deciding on what animal I would like to have.

My father had iguanas and exotic fish.

Even my mom had a bunny rabbit of some sort that she would take care of.

And maybe I’m failing to address the white elephant in the room; Having a kid by 28.

Okay, honestly that was meant to be a joke but there’s actually truth to it.

I have a birthday coming up on the 19th of this month, and thought that would be a clever way to say so.

Seriously though, a tradition is hard for me to look back on exactly and share what I’ve broken from because both sides of my family did their own thing in a way.

Here’s a fun fact though, my high school had a slogan “a break from tradition.”

Let me talk about that for a moment.

I graduated with under 100 students without any upperclassmen ahead of us from the start of my freshman year.

The slogan was appropriate because it was tech based school that worked solely from computers with a system called project based learning.

We had our own login credentials that we would use daily and have projects that revolves around solving real world issues.

Some of the projects would be in direct relation to either a local, national or even global company that chose to work with our school.

Our school was funded by Bill Gates, (you may have heard of him) and he had only a few dozen school schools across the country at the time.

I was class of 2012.

The break from tradition was a unique experience since a lot of what the students, teachers and faculty had to go through.

Our lesson plans were different from a traditional school in where we would have an organized classroom setting with textbooks used every day.

Maybe we can say that was my shift from the norm when comparing it to my parents because they never got the chance to do such a thing.

They did the normal classroom setting as far as I believe.

As embarrassing as it is for me to admit I’ll also share the fact that they (my parents) moved out of their parent’s house by their early adulthood.

I’m hopeful that I’ll have my moment.

Let me pivot off that thought though and also share some traditions that I plan on starting with a future family of mine.

I’m a sucker for traditional American holidays.

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas; the works.

I’d like to be the host for a lot of these events and make that a tradition I can go hard with, including my family and the rest that follows.

Sure that’s a little unoriginal but I tend to be a big dreamer when it comes to those things and I like to up the ante when it comes to celebrations.

Think about Christmas with The Kranks or your favorite Halloween special tv show, and in those things there’s usually that family who goes all out.

I plan on being that family at some point.

(I even cracked a smirk writing that.)

Wow that was fun to imagine it for a moment, but that’s the most relevant response I can give you at the moment.

Maybe things change at some point.

There’s actually another tradition I’d like to address in deciding to fully pursue a career in artistry.

My parents were hard workers but we just have different views on what’s considered a secure working situation.

For example, my parents have great taste in music and are extremely passionate about the craft in itself.

My break with tradition could be in sharing my opinion about musical topics online and making a sound myself.

The post on why rap beats sound the same capture a discussion that could be had about the genre as a whole.

I see it as an important milestone because it’s something that could start the wave of an entirely new sound but who knows?

It sounds almost superficial to see that as a tradition but it’s good enough to be mentioned by me.

Final Thoughts

There’s a lot of things that I was able to reflect on and see that I’ve done differently than both of my parents.

They’re both successful in what they chose to do but I’ll acknowledge the fact that being a millennial is a completely different way of growing up.

Understanding you want to be a creator in some way, shape or form is a bigger decision than what I’d say most would give credit for.

Content creation is being in tune with the news and being able to respond with an artistic spin behind it.

As always, thanks for reading and I look forward to the next segment.

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• Food For Thought