How Nature And Nurture Affected My Life

Nature and Nurture are two very important factors in every organism’s life, as they affect every aspect. Nature is the inborn, innate character of an organism (PSYCH 56). This means that you are born with this characteristic, it is hereditary. Nurture, on the other hand, refers to the environmental factors that affect an organism throughout its life (PSYCH 56). Both of these factors have affected my life significantly, from physical to psychological development. That being said, I feel like nature has affected my life slightly more than nurture.
The influences of nature start even before an organism is born, when they are growing inside of the mother. The genes from both parents get passed down, contributing to both phenotype and genotype.

The most noticeable way that nature has affected me is how I look. I look extremely similar to my parents and other members of my family and this is because it was passed down to me. We are all tall and lanky, no matter how much we eat; I know this because I eat like a pig.

My mother and I are very similar in many ways, from looks to behavior. I get my determination and my anger drives from her. Although this could be considered nurture, in this case it is not because these characteristics run along her side of the family. Another thing that was passed down from her is my psychological disorders. We both have depression and anxiety that comes from within us, not necessarily from the environment. For example, sometimes everything is going great and nothing is wrong but we will still feel down. Even though there is no obvious environmental reason that we are depressed, there is a genetic reason; how our brains are wired. My father gets chronic migraines that do not seem to have a cause. He has had numerous tests and has tried numerous medicines and treatments but comes up empty each time. He and the doctors are all stumped. There is no environmental cause for these migraines because they were passed down from his mother. Unfortunately, I have inherited the gene that causes these migraines as I am beginning to have them more frequently. It is not my father’s fault or even his mother’s; it is just how our bodies are made. There is no way that the environment could change to fix them. This affects me greatly because it

determines how well I will be able to function that day. I am extremely blessed from both of my parents in the aspect of intelligence, both academic and normal smarts. I was able to get accepted into the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics because of the knowledge passed down. My parents are both extremely successful and both are geniuses, and I am not ashamed to brag about them. My father is probably the smartest person I have ever met, and anyone who knows him will agree. My mom is not far behind, she is also very smart. No amount of teaching or school could provide the knowledge I have from them. My siblings inherited this as well, as my older sister is a pure genius and my brother is getting there as well. The ability to retain information and learn without being taught can only be passed through genetics in my opinion. It is a true blessing to have gotten these genes because it makes life easier in a way. Another way nature has had an impact on me is with horseback riding. I was born with the talent to be a great rider, I am a natural. I have a connection with horses and I have always been able to surpass expectations with or without help. No matter how hard someone works to become a better rider, it still cannot add up to the inborn talent that some people, such as myself, have.
Even though nurture has not quite influenced me as much as nature, it has still had a huge impact on my life. The environment I have grown up in has been very loving and sheltered because my parents have created it that way. Also, they have had rules placed to help discipline me to become who I am. All of this is environmental because if I was raised differently, my characteristics would be different. For example, if they had not enforced any rules or boundaries, I could have been running around with the wrong crowd and doing things that are not acceptable. Since they enforced discipline and showed me right vs. wrong, I did not end up like that. Nurture has also contributed to how I speak. My mother is from North Carolina and my father is from New Jersey so they do not have strong southern accents. However, I have the most southern accent in my family and this is because I have grown up down here with people who have strong southern accents. This is not genetic, if it was I would be talking like a northerner. As mentioned above, being great at horseback riding is a talent that I was born with. However, where I have gotten with riding is not all of the way genetic. I have had training and coaching to help get me to where I am now, an environmental factor. Although I was born with this ability, the environment has helped me become a superior rider.
These two factors, nature and nurture, both determine how a person turns out in the end. Some might say that they have equal impacts, and that might be true for certain people, but for me nature is the strongest. Although nature is ahead of nurture for me, I would not be the person I am today without both influences.