[|Zach|]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

It took me a long time to figure them out. I don't think they're evil or overly controlling. I think the issue is that they merely have a very narrow view of the world, and have a masssive aversion to trying anything new. In their world, it's a bad idea to ever try anything that's unfamiliar to them, and my whole life is unfamilar to them.

Of course, it doesn't help that I grew up with eight cousins and I'm the only one who lives outside Missouri. So that makes my life path even more of an outlier, which in their minds solidifies their skepticism about me. I've flat-out been told that they're disappointed in how I turned out.

But it's really kind of ridiculous. My most telling story is that I got my undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering, and as I was interviewing for jobs, my mother argued that I should stay in town and get a minimum-wage job at the local lumberyard.

In light of the lumberyard story and some other really bad events, I eventually figured out that my parents consistently acted against my best interests for their own reasons, so I had to learn to ignore them. This isn't well received by them and causes friction.

Thanks for the therapy session.

Impressive you were able to break out of that small bubble...what do you attribute that to? Was there some outside influence?