Human Interest

Childhood & Individuality

By Angel Avitia

Do you ever wonder how different you would have turned out if your childhood was different? Even how different all of your friends could have been had they experienced something different? Everyone can becomes their own unique individual, due not only to the choices of their parents, but also the choices that can be made by friends and even other family members.

In this article, we will be peering into the minds of the teachers and students of Pecos High School. Not only is this such an important topic, but every single one of us can wonder about how different we would be if we had a different childhood. However, in this case, I interviewed our history teacher on why the childhood of someone shapes their very personal and his response was “I think your childhood shapes everything about who you are. For example, the Buddhist religion uses chakras as a guide toward enlightenment. The first chakra is the root, and I think of childhood as the root of your life.”

The students of Pecos High School as well as their teachers, more specifically Mr. Padilla and Ms. Ortiz, are who played a part in the writing of this article. We discussed how our childhood not only affects our future career or mental health, but our very existence as people. While this topic has been talked about for ages, this article is being written during the week of November 28, 2022, and December 2, 2022. This topic is so important because many of us can view our childhoods in a different light when we hear stories of someone's subjectively better or worse childhood experience. I am doing this by interviewing and surveying different people around Pecos High, because all of us have different experiences that we could share.

We are all completely different people; however, many if not all of us would agree that there are so many different ways that our childhood can truly affect our future. One of the greatest ways that it affects us is on our mental and social health when we are adults. This can be confirmed by common sense, but also by this excerpt from an article named “Effects of positive and negative childhood experiences on adult family health.” In this article, it is stated that "individuals who experience numerous ACE's (Adverse Childhood Experiences) early in their childhood are at risk for developing depression, anxiety, substance abuse habits, and detrimental health behaviors as they mature into adulthood."

Not only does our childhood, like in this case, affect how we turn out as adults, but there are many other ways that our childhood impacts who we are. So many of our behaviors can be derived from childhood experiences whether that be our personalities or maybe even good and bad habits we’ve had since we were kids. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to ask a group of people on the social media site Reddit to answer a short survey about how our childhood truly affects us. Ten people answered my survey and responded to the question “Do you think all aspects of someone's life are affected by their childhood?” An overwhelming majority of 90% of those surveyed answered yes to this question; however, I would like you to think about this question as well. Consider the ways that your childhood has affected you not only in your life, but also why most people think that childhood is the most important event in the entirety of human life.

This is why many of us put so much strain on ourselves to create the best possible childhood for the next generation. As shown before, our childhood can influence our behaviors and maybe even cause strain on our mental health and cause issues for us when we are older, especially when we start to think about the idea of a future when we are say six years old. Mr. Padilla stated in our interview that “ Everyone needs a mentor that can provide advice and guidance. Most successful people understand this and like to look for people to mentor. Even at law schools, new students are always provided a mentor.” I believe this is very important because many of us do have role models within our lives, whether these role models are fathers or mothers, or perhaps other adults. In the case of Padilla, his older brother was his role model when he was a kid. That role model provides the backing for what it is we want to do. Most children in the world have a dream that we wish to accomplish. Whether it be through education or maybe even our means, when we’re young, we dream and we dream big enough to fill our wildest imaginations.

We may be able to judge a person from the first look; this may provide a sense of their work ethic but also who they are. This can be attributed to their childhood, as every single one of us has been shaped, sculpted, maybe even malformed by our childhoods, which can bond us as much as it tears us apart. For some it's only our future it affects; for others, it's simply what we learned to feel since we were children. And finally, for many, it’s the strain of providing a better childhood for the future generations that our elders could not offer. Yet some of us will grow as big as our inner child would want us to, because so many of us seek such a balance: one where all aspects of you can be at peace. With these final words I want you to think about something. Think about what your childhood self always dreamt you would be, and let that thing carry you until it is no longer just a dream, but a reality.

I want to talk about her story and the impact it has on the world today. because people who have been in a similar situation can look up to this powerful woman, Medusa. In the real story of medusa, she was a fair maiden with golden hair who was kind. She devoted her life to celibacy and give her life to her goddess Athena, the virgin goddess of wisdom and battle. (1) Medusa was Athena’s priestess and one requirement was to be a virgin. Then Poseidon who was the god of the sea and who was also Athena's rival, saw medusa and immediately fell for her. But medusa was a loyal priestess and decided to reject him. Poseidon was offended and humiliated, so to get back at her, he raped her on the steps of Athena's temple, the home of Poseidon's rival. After he raped her, he disappeared and left medusa there.

After Medusa was raped, she prayed to Athena for help and forgiveness, especially because Poseidon claimed Medusa; this made Medusa Poseidon's wife. Athena felt angry and betrayed; so angry that she cursed Medusa and sent her far away. Athena turned her into a monster that no man will love with craziness, scaly skin, and hair made of snakes. Last but not least, she was cursed to turn anyone who looked her in the eye into stone. Later she was attacked while asleep and killed by Perseus, who beheaded her with his harp. Medusa was the victim of so much; she was raped and had nobody to sympathize with her. The goddess Athena who Medusa looked up to, took her identity and left her alone to be hunted and killed by Perseus.

Survivors nowadays aren't being treated any better: they get turned into someone they aren't, and sometimes people change their stories to make them out to be the bad person. They might say things like “What were you wearing?”; “With that skirt you were asking for it!”; “What did you think was going to happen?”; “You just want attention.” So many women and men who have been raped go through this. They get blamed for someone's decision to hurt and abuse them. If you have gone through anything like this, I'm sorry--I promise you are not alone.

I conducted a survey, and most of them were students, because I wanted to know how much Generation Z knows about Medusa. Most of the students knew of Medusa, but nothing about her story or her impact. I asked some questions related to how they feel about her, and some said she was a “weird snake-haired girl who killed people by staring at them and turning them to stone.” But she was a kind beautiful woman; she didn't choose to be raped or turned into a monster.

Even in 2022, the abortion legislation doesn't give women any choice. Women are now being forced to have babies against their will, even if they have been raped, are too young, are homeless, addicts, or just aren't ready to have a baby. This occurs even though people don't want to go through the horrible pain of childbirth or don't have the money or the resources for a child; even if women are just going to end up giving the child away or putting them in the foster care system, which is already filled with children as it is. Women are still being forced to have children.

If women opened up to one another and could see how they can change the world if we could come together, women would gain self-confidence and power when they recognize that these laws are nothing more than a way to put women down. People who understand what Medusa symbolizes, use Medusa for power to fight back, and women who are survivors of sexual assault get tattoos of Medusa. This signifies their strength and how they push past their trauma, and instead of being ashamed, they become stronger.

Citations:

(1)https://medium.com/paperkin/what-does-it-take-to-feel-sympathy-for-a-monster-3f88a2727b0c