from Half & Half by Jenny Chen

[krantzbar]

I once had to, for class, make a list of ten things that my parents had taught me. My list looked something like this:

what they taught me
1. work hard & i will succeed.
2. respect my elders & any form of authority
3. respect social norms
4. family comes first
5. be realistic & think in practical terms
6. money buys everything, even happiness
7. be humble
8. be disciplined
9. education is important
10. persistence goes a long way

the list didn't look all that bad, & in fact, i agreed with most of it. so how did i turn out so different from my parents' expectation? the following list may help:

what they didn't teach me
1. working hard is not enough because it's solitary-in a work, networking
2. respecting elders/authority doesn't always mean following blindly
3. societal norms aren't always "right"
4. family comes first, but friends are especially important when the family is not around
5. be idealistic
6. money buys as much as we think it buys
7. being humble is not equivalent to being bashful
8. play
9. education is not limited to textbooks
10. there is a fine line between being persistent and being stubborn