Parents

Who knew such a simple word could evoke such emotion? They are only two people in a world of 6 billion. They have such...power. They can control every aspect of your life willingly and create a hell on earth. Much of the time, that's exactly how it feels to you. Whenever you want to do something, they don't want you to. When you start growing up and maturing, they don't want you to. Everything they do is in perfect contrast to what and who you are. You recede into yourself, drawing up hate for them, despise their existence. Everything they do to you is unfair and out of spite for how they were raised. Oh yeah, that never ending "you don't know how good you have it" phrase and story gets old relatively quickly, meaning after the very first time you hear it. You can't wait to leave, you're itching to get off to college. Then you'll be free from their tyranny. But wait, it gets better: you still can't escape their grasp. One way or another, they still get you to do what they want. Sure, you have your free time to party and go crazy, get out of control. But ultimately, you have to get the grades and impress them enough so that you can stay in school. And finally, there is that undeniable feeling, that certainty that nothing you can ever do will be good enough for them. You'll never make them proud to be your parents. You'll always be viewed as a failure in their eyes because you couldn't live up to their expectations. And it is at this point that you just stop caring. You flip them the bird and give them a big eff you in your mind. You swear that one day, when you have kids of your own, you'll be the opposite. You'll give them everything that you never were able to have, everything that you couldn't have because of the dictators that are your parents.

But then it happens.

You are put in their place. You have kids of your own. Then you finally begin to understand. There was a rhyme and reason to the madness that your parents had in raising you. You come to realize you were always loved. And it turns out that there was next to nothing you could do to make your parents NOT proud of you. You recall how they didn't always express their love for you. But then you quickly realize that it was a fallacy. It wasn't that they didn't know how to express their love for you; it was that you didn't know how they expressed their love for you. Every day they loved you. Everything they did was out of that love for you. And it's true, you will never fully understand why. Even as you are going through it, you will never be able to comprehend why they are doing what they are doing, why they are acting how they are acting. But as I stated earlier, you become them by having your own kids. Then, it hits you, an epiphany of glorioius proportions. The love between parents and children, once seeminly so cryptic, has now become so simplistic. And not just out in the open, but beautiful as well. The intricate connection between parents and offspring can never be fully understood. It has the intangibles, in addition to love, that make it impossible to comprehend. Not until are you gifted with a family of your own will you understand why the decisions were made, as well as how difficult some of them actually were.

I emplore you: love your parents with all your heart. You may not understand anything about the relationship you share with them, but that is a small matter. The bond you share is inseparable, no matter how hard you may try to shake it, or how far away you may try and grow from it. Give them a call for no reason. Thank them for all they have done for you. Thank them for all that they will do for you. The first gift you are ever given by your parents is your name, the identity you shall have in this world. But the most important gifts given unto you were your life and their love. Without these, we are nothing. Without our parents, we are nobodies. So please, do not wait to thank them before it is too late. No matter what the day brings, they will always love you in the end. And no one can ask for more than that.