What Does Character Mean To Me

What Character Means To Me

Every word has an exact denotation that can be understood through a series of letters coming together to form phrases. People are not that simple. One statement cannot explain a person's thoughts or feelings. In a dictionary you may see character defined as the nature of a single person. I don’t believe that it can be that easy. As a complex species we will never be tied down to one uncomplicated translation of our minds. Actions are what will define us. Actions are what can change the world. What we choose to do with our lives on this planet makes up our character. As a young child, I always assumed that everyone I met would be inherently good by nature. At that time I had yet to meet someone that didn’t meet

I was always delighted when my grandfather, Rick, would come to town. Around nine years old I started to realize that the relationship my father had with Rick was nothing like the one I had with my father. They were courteous and cordial but they never really connected. Though Rick and my grandmother were divorced I figured that she was the best person to ask about their strange behavior. The subject seemed to make her uncomfortable, but I persisted. She explained to me exactly why the relationship between the two most important men is my life was so unstable. My sweet, loving, and generous grandfather had abandoned his family when my dad was a baby. Rick left without a trace after divorcing the mother of his child. My family only reconnected with him because my own father tracked him down after he graduated college. How could somebody do that to their own flesh and blood? Why did he leave them wondering for years? Those questions will never be answered for me and I will never be able to comprehend how he could do such a horrible thing. If I look past the utter shock I felt I can see that this knowledge changed the way that I saw family. One of the values my parents instilled in me was to be reliable and never abandon the ones that you love. They also taught me that, despite all of their flaws, you should always forgive someone for their

Still, I have a handful of pleasant memories to call on. My family has always had a difficult time with money. As a child I couldn’t comprehend how we got into such a deep debt but it got even worse after two family members passed in succession. My grandmother and great-grandmother on my father’s side had given us a large home. We lived together from the time that I was born to just around my tenth birthday. When they passed, not only were we a grieving family, but we could no longer afford to stay in our house. Luckily, in the will we were left a small trailer that we had previously rented out. Moving a five person family from a four bedroom, two story house into a two bedroom trailer is not an easy thing to do. What I remember most about that time though, is my mother. Suddenly she had the weight of four living beings on her shoulders. Along with handling the household finances, taking care of her severely depressed husband, trying to keep her three young children from falling apart, she started working two full time jobs just to keep a roof over our head. I didn’t always have the best connection with her but she is the closest thing to a superhero that I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing. Patricia Dulworth was always a strong person, but in that time she was practically inhuman. Her determination, strength and work ethic are what has helped shape me into the young woman that I am