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NONFICTION
Generational Predestiny
What do we owe others versus ourselves?
My father was the first in his family to go to college. And as such, I am thinking about how we might each be a stepping stone in the universe to get to something else — with “something else” being loosely defined — on an evolutionary level. Something like a Darwinian ideal — that we exist to push the boundaries and capabilities of our bloodlines forward in ways our ancestors couldn’t for us. Note: this is not to say that higher education is the measure of success, as I for one, vehemently do not believe that or that progress can be defined in a linear, objective way. But, rather, to say that doing for yourself/your children what your parents couldn’t do for you is a fascinating phenomenon.
My father doesn’t talk about the struggles of being a first-generation college student as much as one might think he would for such an extroverted, success-driven person. Generally, he keeps it hidden, like a masked part of his life before the maturity and clarity that came with his 30s revealed themselves. I wish I could unearth more from him, if only to learn about how hard he worked — how much he struggled, learned, and un-learned — in order for me to eventually exist.
In any case, I am thinking about this under the pretense that I do not want to have…
