Renegades Part 2

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=33514&picture=tree-and-storm-2

 

Yesterday we talked how in every family tree there is at least one ancestor who bucked the norms and the status quo and went for their dreams.

Let’s talk about some radical things that our ancestors have done. It’s important to understand that you don’t have to leave your country like some people did.  All you have to do is take your life in your hands and live it the way that pleases you.  That’s all you need to do to build the life of your dreams.

Here are some “radical” things that I know have happened in my family as well as the families of my friends:

~A Catholic fell in love with and married a Protestant;

~Newlyweds decided to move away from the ethnic neighborhood in which all of the family has always lived, and settle on the other side of town;

~A young woman from a wealthy family refused to marry the old man her father had chosen for her and instead emigrated to America with only what she could wear;

~A wealthy young man married the woman he loved who came from a working class family–the wrong side of the tracks;

~A young man went against his father’s advice to learn a trade like all the other men in the family and instead he put himself through college;

~A young woman put herself through college in spite of her father telling her she was wasting her money because she’ll just end up married and raising a family–which she did along with pursuing her profession;

~A young woman was ridiculed and told she was getting uppity for preferring to listen to the great symphonies and operas rather than the bluegrass music her family preferred….

 

Nothing really drastic in that brief list but yet the renegades broke away from “what our family has always done” and that was enough to cause families to label them the “black sheep” of the family or “the one who was too big for his/her britches”. It’s these “ones that no one knows what to do with” who pulled themselves up, oftentimes out of poverty and ignorance, and help others do the same.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Valentinesdaytree.jpg

Again I say that you have this DNA within you! Instead of focusing on negative or neutral traits and legacies from your ancestors, focus on the ones who refused to accept “their lot in life” and instead stepped into their destinies.

You can do it, too!

Your Friend and Pep Pal,

Lauren