Tuesday 26 June 2012

Breaking Family Traditions and Excelling

The semester is almost over and I’ve almost finished my assignment on ‘The Modern Nation State’. Although it may seem like a dry topic, I’m surprised how much I have personally learned from this assignment and how far my education has come. We had to read many academic texts with some about tradition to do this assignment, and it taught me a lot about my family and upbringing. My grandfather is very old fashioned German man. He is very controlling and the family treats him like a god. In this assignment, I learned about the ‘web of belief’ where figures that view themselves as authority or are born into it, get away with having their authority rarely if ever questioned.

This helped me to understand why he had such a problem with me. He assumed that I would drop out of high school and become pregnant at 16 and be on the pension just like my mother. I completely rebelled against him and became the opposite which was naturally who I am. I completed my year 12 VCE even while living in a refuge and have never even had sex with a man because I have never been attracted to them! Also as I identify as a man, I have never had any desire to ever carry a baby and am also on the waiting list to have a hysterectomy in the next month or so for health concerns.

He told me I would never go to university and I would never have a laptop because those things were for rich and smart people. While I am no where near rich, I am the only person in my family to pass year 12 VCE and go on to do a diploma. I am also getting an average of distinctions and next year will start my Bachelor of Psychology. I also have my very first laptop thanks to the Pinnacle Foundation and have completely smashed all of my grandfather’s wrong assumptions of me.

In being who I am, it gives hope to others who come from low incomes and uneducated controlling families. I hope that one day; my younger siblings will break free of these destructive traditional patterns and become all they can. I am proof that others can rebel against families who assume low of them and reach their full potential in not only their education but also in life.



Four months after chest operation & closer to the man I identify as.

By Anonymous

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