As the youngest child, I’ve noticed the ‘baby mentality’ has followed me throughout my college career. It isn’t because of my mindset or the way that I carry myself but, because of the mindset that my father has had in raising me – granted, he wasn’t my everyday parent until I reached my high school years. It was because of this division that I believe my father and I have always had a rough start to forming any sort of relationship.
It was my freshman year of high school that I started to struggle more apparently with mental health. I was reminded that the image of my family was important for my father’s job at the time. We weren’t seeing eye to eye, and because we lack good communication skills as a family, it has always been harder to vocalize how I feel and what I need in order to be successful. The more we clashed, the more toxic the house environment became overall. I saw sanctuary in my room, writing poems and putting my nose in books.
College truly is a time of reflection, especially when trying to figure out who you are and what you want your life to look like. The relationship that I have with my father, I would say, is a lot better than it ever has been. He has sacrificed more than I would ever know to provide me with the life that I am able to have today. After being in college for three years, I think it’s necessary to remember that setting boundaries with the people we love are the best ways to ensure our own happiness comes before someone else’s.
