I Bet Your Dad Is Real Proud

My mother once told me I should always rinse off the tops of canned food because rats poop on them. As a child you hear this and think it's a definitive statement, like a rat surely poops on every single top of canned food, so you definitely need to rinse it off. Of course when you're older, you realize in the process of transporting and storing, it's possible a rat may have pooped on it at some point in time... maybe, and yet I find myself cleaning off every can of food and thinking about rat poop to this day.

It's interesting to note the people who have influenced your life and how those influences affect you to this day. I often find I am extremely mindful of those who can amount to the integrity I expect from a positively influential person, but none can come as close as my parents. Let's just say this blog is the reproach to the famous and most commonly used insult towards adult performers, "I bet your daddy is really proud".

My parents raised me to be virtuous and independent. I'm not sure whether this was absolutely intentional, but they did however want me to know how to take care of myself. I, of course, hated this growing up. I'd see the other kids complain to their parents about teachers at school, and those parents would march right in to the school and confront their child's issue.  Whenever I complained, my parents just told me I needed to deal with it.  When I needed a raise in my allowance I had to use the model thinking approach and prove to my dad through research that my allowance was not conducive with my lifestyle due to inflation. When I was caught lying, instead of being grounded I had to write a research paper.

My parents have shaped who I am more than anyone else. They are both compassionate, ethical people, and they know the value in having a child who is a knowledgeable and capable person. Although my parents may not necessarily be proud of what I do, they are proud of the person I've become, and I feel that is truly most important. Anyone can go to school and be successful, but there is no school for integrity, and that's why the attribute has such a great value in a person. What you do is not who you are, and just because you have a respected career does not make you a respected person. 

-XO Chanel