I've found that for many people college is a time in which you reexamine things you've been accustomed to. For me, that meant comparing the often opposing things my parents told me and figuring out how to balance them.
1. Father: How to harden my heart and why that is necessary.
2. Mother: How to embrace my natural tenderheartedness.
3. Stepmother: That men can be manipulated.
4. Mother: That true love would never do that. And that it would never make one feel that's the only way to have power in a relationship.
5. Father: How to be the life of the party.
6. Stepfather: That silence can be golden.
7. Father: That some people's love isn't enough.
8. Mother: That love is still worth trying for.
9. Father: That how you present yourself to the world is important.
10. Stepfather: That your happiness is worth more than your image.
11. Myself
And finally, from myself and years of hard work with at least 7 therapists, I've begun to sort through all of this. I've learned which parts could be learned from, which set a good example, and which I must work to forgive for my own sake. All of my parents and parental figures did good things and made mistakes, and for a long time, it was hard to come to terms with that.
