I Did NOT See This Coming!

I was so busy trying not to become my mother, I did not see this coming. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with my mother, she’s fabulous, I just prefer to be me. When I catch myself doing things that remind me of my mom, it tends to freak me out a bit. So you can’t imagine the panic I felt when I realized I was also becoming my dad.

I always knew I had similarities to my dad, I got his incredibly short legs and we’re both charmingly sarcastic (my mother may disagree with the charming part). It’s the other little things that have snuck up on me that came as a shock. Girls work so hard at not becoming their mothers that we fail to see that we are equally likely to become our fathers and it blindsides us.

A couple months ago I was on a camping trip with some friends. Being the country girl, I tend to be the camping expert in the group. I found myself waking earlier than everyone else, getting the morning fire started, cleaning up camp and getting coffee started. It wasn’t until the second morning that I realized that had my father been there, he would have been the one doing all of that. I’m not sure if that is just good camping training or what, but it shocked (and scared) the hell out of me.

It snuck up on me again as I just finished scrawling my signature across a check. I’ve never been able to reproduce my mom’s signature; she has this loopy, girly E that I cannot duplicate for the life of me. My father’s signature, one giant R, is another story all together. Not only can I reproduce it, I’ve made fun of him for the ridiculousness of it. My signature has gotten progressively sloppier over the years as I’ve given up trying to have the handwriting of a bubbly teenage girl. Despite that, I was a bit shocked to look down at the check however and see that the only noticeable letters in my signature were an H, an M and a G. Where did the rest of my name go? Disturbing as it is that my signature is following in my father’s handwriting, I have to admit that my current signature looks pretty darn cool if you ask me.

Both my parents are pretty great, but kids want to be their own person. Or at least preserve the idea that they are totally individual and haven’t picked up anything other than genetics from our parents. As I age, I find myself doing or saying something that is way too similar to what my parents do or say. Although I strive for individuality, it’s pretty hard not to see the writing on the wall. Or the signature on the check in this case. Handwriting I can handle, but I fear the day when the words “eat or starve” come out of my mouth. Here’s hoping all us kids keep the best parts of our parents and not the parts that drove us nuts.