Yes, they sucked, and they pretty much quit being parents when I was 12 and realistcally needed them most, but I really try to rise above it and take responsibility for myself. I am who I am because I made myself that way, and I can be whoever I want to make myself become.

But I do find myself incredibly bitter toward them over one specific developmental failing I’ll never be able to overcome: They never cultivated any of my talents. By the third one, it was no longer important to them if their children were talented. I begged and begged my mother for singing lessons. I always got the solos, and other parents were always telling her how good I was, but somehow she always thought it was a waste of money. And I begged and begged for gymnastics lessons, something I figured out early on I had a natural talent for, but she’d already gone through it with my other two sisters (I would go to their lessons to watch. I was never enrolled.). Neither of these things would probably have taken me very far in life, but it would just be nice to be able to say that I could do something. Something that not everyone can do. It would be nice to know that there’s at least one thing about me that is more than mediocre. I don’t think my parents understood how important it was to me to have something that was mine, that I could shine at. And, sorry future offspring, but because of that, you’re going to be enrolled in everything until we find something that you excel at. Because there will be times when you suck at something, or you feel defeated by something you can’t master, but I want you to be able to think to yourself, “Okay, so I’m not good at this. But that’s okay, because I’m still great at this other thing. I’m still smart, and talented, and a perfectly capable human being.”

Talents give you confidence. Confidence gives you ambition. A complete lack of those things makes you me. My child will not be me.