The Influence of Parents on My Identity

When I look back into my past I remember that my family and I lived in Egypt. Both me and my sister, Judi were born there. We had a nanny who didn’t speak English and our mom’s English wasn’t very strong back then either. I think that's why my first language was Arabic. I don’t remember how I reacted when my parents told me and Judi that we were moving, because i was 5, but I can’t imagine that I wasn’t very happy about packing up my room. I don’t remember much about when I was 5, nothing except for one little incident that I still haven’t forgotten.

I had a favorite red chair that was always by the same window in my bedroom. It was my normal afternoon routine to go sit there and play with my toys. One day I went to sit down on my chair and I fell on the floor because the chair wasn’t there anymore. Then, I didn’t think much of it, but now I'm realizing it probably wasn’t there because my parents packed it away for moving. Me falling onto the floor, made me realize that I was so used to it being there, that it didn’t occur to me that it wouldn’t be there. My family has shaped me to like routine and to get used to the idea of routine. As a result of this, I like having a routine schedule, which leads to me being more organized and motivated to complete what I have to do. The big move was scary for me and my sister, not because we had never been to England, which we had to ‘vacation’, which was actually my parent’s looking for houses and schools etc. But it was because my English wasn’t very good. I was nervous about how school would go, because of this. My worries were for nothing I quickly adapted to the language and it became my main language, my whole family became so used to not speaking in Arabic that I and Judi both forgot Arabic. When we moved we had to adapt to new cultures and ways of living which led to me having a better understanding of others’ cultures. When I got to my new school it was just as I imagined, it was like a medieval castle. Well, only I thought that. I walked through the big green gate that was about 50 times the size of me, in awe. When I got to the reception, the lady at the desk asked me “what’s your name sweetie?” And of course, I was still in shock because of how nice I thought it was, that I didn’t hear her ask. I replied back, “pardon me” And she asked again and we had a normal conversation, or so I thought. After I said thank you so immediately said to my parents, “Your daughter has amazing manners, even at such a young age!” My parents and I said thank you and we were off to start my first day. Little did I know the kind reception lady wasn’t the first to compliment my manners, my teachers were always telling me that I had great manners and that the class should take me as an example of how to act. To me, I didn’t think I was being overly polite at all, that was just how my parents raised me to act.

My parents raised me with certain morals, such as kindness and politeness, responsibilities and ethical lessons that have been displayed in my identity. When I got to my new school, I made plenty of friends, some of them were nice to others and some of them weren’t. I decided very quickly that I didn’t want to hang out with the kids that were mean to other people and I chose to have friends that are kind, encourage, and help each other.

This influenced me to be that kind of friend as well. Because of these attitudes, and these ways of social interaction, I have grown into those same habits. I don’t completely know my identity, but I’m content that I’m Tamina and this is who I am.