Nature vs. Nurture
I am adopted.
And I love being a very unscientific study of nature vs. nurture.
I did a paper on it once in college. I had some random facts about my birth mother, and I used that to form my argument that it is always both. Always.
Nurture.
I have much more information on this one since I know how I grew up. And I can tell you that my views on marriage and money are entirely products of how I grew up. Most of what I learned or didn’t learn comes from watching my parents and seeing how they lived their lives. I have limited info on the biological family, but from what I can tell, these two subjects are all about the nurture.
Nature.
I believe that much of my independent streak is a nature thing. I see some on the nurture side, but for the most part, this seems to be just me in my family. I see it in my brother, who would probably live with my parents for the rest of his life if he could. He is not the fiercely independent person that I am. Neither are my cousins. It just doesn’t seem to be a thing in my family. I tend to think it is something that comes from the biological side, but I don’t know enough yet to say that is true or not.
I have many more examples. They are pretty mundane. And when it is all laid out, for me, the answer is clear. It is always both. Right down the middle. I would not be the person I am today without both the natural side of my body and mind and the nurtured side of my body and mind. They combine perfectly to be the perfect me.
Now, for the past couple of years, I have been searching for my biological parents. I wanted to know if any of my health issues were part of my biology. I kept telling myself that was all I wanted to know. Turns out it really isn’t. Especially when you find people. Then there are the questions. All the questions.
Next week, I will start to tell the story of my search to find my biological parents. Stay tuned.