A revealing insight during yesterday's dinner...

How many times mothers and daugthers repeat the same things? Pretty soon, I will finally be moving away from Ohio in order to start an independent life in Ohio and, hopefully, in other countries as well. For some reason, my mother and I started talking about what life was like in Poland (I think it was because we were commenting about the cheating that goes on in Polish schools), and I asked her what it was like when she moved to America for the first time. She didn't want to go into specifics (which is normal for our family--we don't like to delve into deep, personal feelings, even though it would be psychologically beneficial for all of us).

I then asked how did Babcia (grandmother in Polish) reacted when she moved away to America? She replied that she was upset.

"That's why", my mother continued to say, "I cannot be upset that you are leaving. Because you are doing the same thing that I did to her many years ago. Once you have a child, you will begin to understand this feeling, of a parent wanting to hold onto her[his] child for as long as s/he can".

It's funny how behavior seems to repeat generation after generation, even when we proclaim that we do not want to be like our parents when we grow up.